Deep Run the Scars
by 24CaratCoal
Summary: If from a young age Naruto had been raised by an aging medic, how would that affect his life? Smart, strong -somewhat- respectful/respected Naruto. Pairings undecided, suggestions welcome. No Yaoi/Yuri. Rated M, NC-17. Warnings inside. Edited 2/11
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Welcome readers to another one of my stories. Assuming that you've already read one of my other stories, if not, welcome to your first story written by me. Sorry for the long winded introduction, I'm tired and easily sidetracked at the moment. Anyway. This story is a Medic Naruto story, why? Because I can, and I wanted to see a story with a medic Naruto not raised by Tsunade. That's right, he has never met Tsunade in this story (Thank you for OCs). As fair warning, this story either already contains or may possibly in the future contain:

Underage smoking and/or drinking  
References to alcohol  
Gore  
Violence  
Nudity/Partial Nudity  
Foul Language  
Sexual References  
Bad Pop-culture references  
Bad Puns  
And more than likely other mature/adult themes.

This is not a childrens story people, if you are below the age of seventeen and/or find any of the listed materials offensive, go find another story. I will bot be blamed for lost innocence people- though I may take credit for the corrupted kind, it depends.

The pairing for this story is undecided as of yet, though it will probably contain very little Sakura. Why? Because I always write Sakura into the team, I want a change of pace, besides, she'd be useless on the team if this story ever makes it to post time skip. You know, kind of like she was before the time skip in cannon. Seriously, in her big fight scenes, she cuts her hair gets stabbed. Her second big fight scene, she gets possessed by her best friend, gives Ino the mental equivalent of a bitch slap and then gets knocked out. It's pretty pathetic.

**Edit**: Please note that the entire chapter has been combed over more finely than before and I have removed many many grammar errors. Thank you Dalxein for pointing them out to me. Actually, thank you for all your help in general.

Story annotations

chapter beginning

=#=

Scene changes

~*~*~

Flashback beginning/ending

=( o )=

"Spoken"

'_Thought'_

**"Demon/Second (Inner) Personality/Boss (large) Summon speaking"**

_**'Demon/Boss (large) summon thinking'**_

Alright, that's it for annotations, now for the much hated part

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. If I did, Naruto wouldn't have such crappy data book stats. Also, I do not own South Park, you'll understand this part towards the end.**

Okay, that's over with, start the story.

* * *

=1=

A bitter smelling cloud of cigarette smoke floated gently upward into the open noon sky from an almost empty graveyard, occupied only by the inhabitants and their hundreds of memorial stones and blond boy in a bright orange track suit. The boy seemed to be talking quietly as he leaned on the side of one of the grave markers, taking an occasional drag from the cigarette in his hand as one burned on the marker. Had anyone else living been in the expansive burial grounds, and had they been close enough to hear the blond's soft voice, they could have heard him speaking to the stone as if it were a living person. Telling it about little things that had happened to him in recent days.::

Had any of the few people who knew the boy been present, they would have understood that he was speaking to the grave of his departed teacher and mentor for several years in his early life. Naruto's speech was broken up with the occasional laughter at one of his own jokes, or one he imagined the teacher he knew simply as Yamada Taro probably would have made at one comment or another. Whenever his cigarette or Taro's burned out, the blond boy quickly extinguished the ashes in the glass tray he had brought with his and lit up a new one. The young man coughed once as the last cigarette he had brought with him burned down to the butt and he sighed heavily before tapping out the ashes for his former mentor.::

"Guess that's it for now, Yamada-shishou. Tomorrow is the graduation exam and then I'll be a full blown adult." Naruto said, looking down at the stone before grinning. "I guess that means I should pull one last big prank before I can get in any serious trouble for it." The wind picked up slightly as if in answer and the outcast laughed aloud, not bothering to suppresses the multitude of bells that hung from the collar around his neck. "You're right, I really should do something big. It's been fun, I'll come to visit again soon Shishou."

*~*~*

Iruka let out a small sigh as he looked down at his tied up blond student, feeling slightly unsure about whether he should be disappointed in the boy for defacing the entire Hokage monument and leading half the village's chuunin and four squads of ANBU on a three hour chase- or damn proud that he did it all in broad daylight while wearing his kill-me-now orange tracksuit and dozens of jingling bells and didn't get caught until he was already done. It was hard not to admit that the boy had astounding potential as a ninja, but only if he stopped with all of his childish jokes- and it would probably help if he did a one-eighty in fashion choices.::

"Naruto, this is no time for you to be causing trouble, the graduation exam is tomorrow and it's going to take everything you have just to barely pass with how your grades have been." Iruka scolded him in front of the other student.

"Yeah yeah." The blond sighed, wriggling around uncomfortably to keep attention off his hands as he worked to subtly to free himself from his bindings- barely missing the look in Iruka's eyes as he did so.

"Time for a review test on the transformation technique! Everybody line up!" The chuunin barked to the class.

"What?!" Was the general outcry of the class before everyone filed down to the floor under their teacher's glare while Naruto finally managed to free himself.

"Everyone is to transform perfectly into me!" Iruka ordered, noticing that Naruto was already with the others- looking out of the corner of his eye to confirm that Naruto had freed himself. _'He really must be holding himself back for some reason, that was one of my tougher knots._' "No complaints. Aburame Shino, you're up first."

Shino just nodded before stepping forward and transforming into a perfect copy of Iruka, though no one else was quite as stoic about the task every other person in the class stepped forward and transformed into their teacher- usually directing a glare toward the blond they rightfully blamed for the pop-quiz. Naruto just smiled back at all of them when they glared before finally stepping forward when his turn came, the chuunin instructor felt slightly worried when he saw the grin on his student's face. Before he could say anything Naruto's hands had already formed the needed seals and he was enveloped in the obscuring cloud of harmless chakra smoke common to a multitude of ninja techniques. When the smoke finally cleared a long moment later, instead of a another copy of him there was a beautiful naked girl standing there. Her decency was protected only by a few lingering clouds that left almost nothing to the imagination. The effect on the room was immediate, pants tightened and noses began to bleed among the males all while fires of jealousy were stoked among the females.

"Too easy." Naruto chuckled, releasing the transformation and looking at the his dazed male classmates. "The sexy technique gets them every time."

"You dumb ass!" The combined cry of Iruka and most of the kunoichi in training came as tempers erupted. "Don't invent such useless skills!"

"You know, Iruka-sensei is the only one with any right to call it useless." The blond declared, getting glares from the girls. "Yeah, it's useless in any real fight, and that's why he called it useless, you're just calling it useless because I transformed into a hot girl that you're jealous of. Hell, you'd probably be drooling as badly as the guys if I did my other version."

"Oh yeah, prove it!" Ino barked in annoyance before here eyes widened with the sudden realization of what she said.

"Alright." The boy responded with a smirk smirked before being enshrouded once more in a cloud of smoke.

Before the smoke even cleared, a tall and emphatically masculine figure moved out in a blur of motion and crossed the room to the blond girl before coming to a stop. To say most of the girls were instantly besotted with Naruto's new form would be accurate, he was taller than before, nearly a full six feet now. His body was lean but not to the point of being wiry and his muscles were finely toned and pronounced, though not to the point of seeming to be highly exaggerated. To sum it all up in a word. He was hot. Beyond that he was also quite naked, with only a wispy lingering transformation could remaining to guard what little decency he had left. It was an image that caused several of the girls, Hinata at the top of the list, to faint dead away while their brains reset and erotic fantasies played before their dreaming eyes. Ino was proud to admit, if only to herself, that she managed to remain conscious even as the new Naruto cupped her chin gently with one hand and her subconscious betrayed her with dozens of very creative fantasies of her own before he spoke in that knee melting baritone voice that caused a few more girls to faint.::

"Is this proof enough, Ino-chan?" Naruto asked her softly, causing her and many of the other conscious girls to blush madly while many of the boys could only gape in jealousy- and wonder how the hell he hadn't been slapped yet.

"I... uh... I..." She stammered slightly before letting out a small giggle as a tiny line of blood trickled from her nose while she retreated to her happy place.

"Well then..." Naruto said, releasing the transformation and stepping back as he reached into his bag. "Before anyone has a chance to recover. Good bye." Before anyone could say anything the blond broke open a small smoke pellet on the ground to completely cover himself for an escape.

"Damn it Naruto!" Iruka and the rest of the conscious members of the class, males included, shouted in unison as they looked at the empty space where the blond had previously been.

"Three pranks in twenty minutes, that's got to be a new record for me." Naruto said aloud with a wide smirk and a laugh at his victims' expense as he sat on top of the school roof after hearing the loud unified cry of his class, it wouldn't be too long until Iruka tracked him down.

"Naruto!" The chuunin shouted as if on cue as he stormed onto the roof not more than five minutes later.

"Yo!" The blond boy answered chipperly as he turned to see the brunet man. "Something I can help you with Iruka-sensei?"

"Naruto," The young man sighed as he walked over and leaned against the railing. "Why do you keep doing things like this? You're not a child anymore."

"I know Sensei. This was kind of my way of leaving behind the title of Konoha's very own prank king, I wanted to got out with a bang." Naruto answered quietly, causing the other man to regard him curiously. "Yamada-shishou taught me a lot of things before he passed away Sensei. One of them was that a good sense of humor is vital if a person wants to survive being a ninja with at least some of their humanity intact. So he encouraged me to do pranks around the village, partially for the laughs, partially for the extra training running from half of the shinobi in Konoha would give me."

"I have to admit, you've definitely gotten harder to catch over the years." Iruka added with a soft chuckle.

"And you've gotten better at catching me." His student pointed out with a smile.

"Tomorrow is the graduation." The dark haired shinobi pointed out after a moment of respective silence, getting a noncommittal grunt in response. "Just do me one favor when you pass Naruto."

"What, sensei?" The fair-haired boy inquired.

"Stop wearing orange all the time," Iruka ordered. "Believe it or not Naruto. I care about you and I don't want to see you getting hurt."

"I believe it." Naruto responded before smirking. "Hey, Sensei, want to help me perform one last prank?"

"On who?" The scarred man asked curiously.

"Your fan club of course." He replied without losing his crooked smile.

"I have a fan club?" The teacher asked in a genuinely surprised tone.

"You never noticed?" The blond asked innocently, smiling more softly when the older man shook his head. "Jeez. And they call me oblivious. Lean in closer and I'll tell you what to do." He instructed, deliberately turning his head so that it was facing the door to the roof. "Turn this way if you're going to say something Sensei. Some of your fan girls can read lips."

Iruka nodded a few times as he listened to his fair-haired student's plan before pulling away and yelling. "No! No way Naruto!"

"Sorry Iruka-sensei, I'm not giving you a choice." The blond responded loudly, grinning as the threw down a smoke pellet.

Had anyone been close enough, they more than likely would have heard the sounds of a small scuffle within the confines on the cloud. The fracas ended as the smoke cleared and the two were standing opposite of where they had been. Naruto was grinning like a fool while wearing Iruka's oversized clothing and Iruka was standing across from him stark naked while trying to cover himself with his hands and failing miserably. A chorus of cheers and wolf-whistles erupted from down on the ground where several dozen kunoichi and a couple civilian women were now standing under one of the trees while they ogled the nude teacher. 'Naruto' suddenly popped into a cloud of smoke as he changed back into Iruka at the same time his unclothed doppelganger turned back into the blond boy wearing his usual clothes, thoroughly stunning the audience.::

"W-what the hell?" The chuunin asked in a mildly traumatized tone as he stared down at the crowd with wide eyes.

"That would be your fan club." The blond stated flatly as he looked down at the women- and the couple men in the group.

"Right, let's go inside." Iruka said setting a hand on his students shoulder and throwing one last worried look at his fan girls before leading the boy inside. "Hey, Naruto, how did you know I have those scars?"

"You remember last year when the Hokage got me that computer?" Naruto asked in return.

"Yeah, I remember seeing the incident report, I always wondered why you destroyed it after only a month." The man stated.

"Heh, I got kind of bored on day, and since I knew that shinobi public records are available through the local network- I decided to see what kind of missions you went on before you became a teacher." The demon container began explaining. "So, I typed your name into the browser."

"Yeah?" He pressed.

"Apparently your home has been rigged up with dozens of cameras." He stated, watching his teacher blanch suddenly.

"C-cameras?" Iruka repeated.

"Yep, bedroom, kitchen, living room, shower, water closet, even a couple cupboards and your broom closet." Naruto confirmed.

"How do you know all this?" His teacher asked cautiously.

"I sneezed and clicked the wrong link." He answered blandly. "You may want to ask the Hokage if you can borrow a cleaning team to sweep your place for bugs and the like."

"Yeah. Jeez, no wonder I always felt like people were watching me in the shower." The older man remarked, while he had recovered some of his color, he was still looking quite pale. "It also explains why you were heard shouting 'Fire! Fire! Cleanse this hellish machine!' when you blew your computer up, but why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"It took me two months before I could look you in the eyes and after that, your fan club threatened to, how was it that purple haired one said it?" He questioned himself, pausing for a moment before straightening up. "Oh right, I remember. She threatened to slowly gut me like a deer before dumping kerosene on my dying body and lighting me on fire if I ever told you. You can see how that is kind of a deterrent, I hope."

"Damn." The brunet teacher said at length.

~*~*~

The sound of light humming filled the home of one Uzumaki Naruto as the blond teen worked over a bubbling pot of probably the most indescribably disgusting smelling brown liquid in history while chewing on a mint flavored pocky stick. Naruto looked up from his work when he heard the doorbell ringing insistently and quickly placed his hands together in a simple four finger cross seal, switching the work off to his newly formed clone before dropping down the slide pole meant to land him in the front room on the first floor quickly in case of a medical emergency. He didn't really get very many cases despite the fact that he was one of only a handful of qualified doctors in the slums of Konoha, but he always got the worst emergencies just like his teacher had.::

Doctors were rare in the slums, as previously, seeing as most folk would just go to the hospital when the got sick, the only patients slum doctors and medics would get would be those too poor to afford regular hospital and criminals in a variety of forms- usually Yakuza members or other such people seeking more covert medical attention. It was a good source of income and it actually provided a good deal of security in such dangerous neighborhoods, nobody messed with one of the doctors for fear of every gang in the underworld coming down on their heads. Naruto was a stand out among the other medical practitioners for the simple fact of his training under Yamada Taro. Where most of the other medics used old-fashioned tools such as scalpels, clamps and retractors, Naruto used medical ninjutsu capable of healing virtually all but those who were already dead on arrival.::

With that being said, it didn't come as much of a surprise when he opened the door to find over a dozen men waiting outside with injuries ranging from a few minor cuts to one belly wound. He quickly stepped aside and they rushed in as he discarded the belled bracelets and collar he constantly wore, Naruto took a moment to remember the first belly wound he had assisted Yamada-shishou with, after the surgery was over he spent twenty minutes in the bathroom completely purging his stomach of things he hadn't eaten in months. A larger than normal homemade soldier pill was in his mouth before his hands formed into an oh so familiar hand seal whilst he divided his chakra to form a pair of clones to take care of every wounded man who had arrive, as he bit down into the pill and swallowed he moved to take the most severely injured patient himself with a pair of clone assistants.::

To say he was tired by the end of the night's surgeries was an understatement, eight hours personally spent working on the partially eviscerated man, who pulled through by the skin of his teeth, plus the eight hours put in by _both_ of his shadow clones, added to the two hours spent reattaching one man's severed left forearm, and all together dozen hours of minor surgeries performed on everyone else, he was thoroughly exhausted by the time all was said and done. Everyone looked up at him expectantly as he walked back into the room covered in the blood of their fellow Jade Tiger.::

"So, how is he? Did Kijuro make it?" The oldest man who had come asked, looking at him with pleading in his unbandaged eye.

"Don't worry, Masaru-san, your son will be just fine." Naruto said with a small smile as he looked at the greying man.

"Thank you... I..." The man dubbed Masaru tried to say as he broke down crying into his hands as, looking up into Naruto's soft blue eyes when he felt the boy set a hand to his shoulder.

"It's alright, Masaru-san, I'm just sorry I couldn't do anything more for your eye." The boy stated with a sad smile.

"If losing my eye means keeping my boy I'd give it up a thousand times more." The older man said as tears continued flowing from his visible eye.

"I..." Naruto began speaking before being interrupted by the door bell, none of his patients so much as blinked in surprise when he disappeared and reappearing in front of the door in a flicker- it was a common sight in a hidden village and fairly common knowledge that he had ninja training training. "Yes?" He asked as he opened the door to see three men standing there, two with blood stained clothing and one with a large wound in his side.

"We need help." One of the men, the one holding the bandages tightly, stated.

"Follow me." Naruto ordered.

"Hey! Why are you letting that scum in here?!" One of the young Jade tigers, the twenty something who had nearly lost his left hand, shouted as soon as he saw the latest arrivals. "They're Crimson Dragons!"

"Hisaki! That's enough."Masaru snapped as the injured man was led through the room by the blond medic. "You dishonor us all with such behavior in Naruto-dono's home."

"But they..." Hisaki started to protest before feeling wave of murderous intent directed at him by the youthful blond.

"Listen to me and listen well, because I'm only saying this once." Naruto growled, creating another clone to lead the new arrivals and prepare for the next surgery. "I am a medic. I treat the injured no matter what their background is. These men may be scum to you, but keep in mind that you are scum to someone else. I don't care where you come from or who your family is. I will treat your injuries all the same, but if you wish to complain about my other patients, bear in mind that I'm the one who saved 'alone time' from being meaningless for you and that I have no problems throwing your ungrateful ass out into the cold. Now, I have a patient, if you don't like it- the door is right over there."

"Hisaki, you're an idiot." One of the random members of the Jade Tiger gang stated as soon as Naruto was out of the room.

*~*~*

Kijuro stared up at the plain ceiling looming overhead for a few minutes after he regained consciousness, unable to figure out where he was. The last thing he could remember was the fight with the Crimson Dragon gang and getting stabbed in the stomach the lashing out at his attacker. He was fairly sure he got the other man. A soft hand on his shoulder let him know someone else was there and he looked over to see a young teenager not even matching his sixteen years with shaggy blond hair and the most stunning blue eyes he had ever seen before sitting next to him. By the questions he was asked, Kijuro guessed that his father had brought him to one of the slum doctors, which made a lot of sense when he thought about it. At first he thought the boy was a nurse or maybe an apprentice, if he hadn't been laying down he was sure his jaw would have hit the floor when the younger teen told him that _he_ was the resident doctor.::

With all relevant questions asked and after thoroughly blinding Kijuro with a little penlight, the blond told his patient that he would make a full recovery. As long as he avoided taking any sharp and/or pointy objects to the stomach for at least two weeks at least- the bad joke made him laugh a little, the pain from it made him cry a little. Under doctors orders he closed his eyes and began resting again until he father came over, it was a bit hard to look the man in his remaining eye- he felt ashamed when he learned the older man had lost it to save him They talked for almost an hour before the fair haired teenage medic came over and told Masaru that both of them needed to rest, it struck Kijuro as slightly humorous seeing his father being ordered about by a soft spoken fifteen year old.::

"Hey, do I know you?" A voice from the bed beside him asked just as he was settling down, he looked over and was startled when he saw the green eyed brown haired that had stabbed him laying in it. "Oh, it's you! Damn, what are the odds?"

"W-what are you doing here?" Kijuro asked quietly.

"Turns out, you did a number on me in that little scuffle of ours, the doctor my gang took me too barely managed to get me stable enough to be brought here." He stated with a light hearted chuckled. "Name's Akiwara Yozo."

"Watabe Kijuro. Uh, should we be talking? I mean, we're enemies aren't we?" The younger man asked quietly.

"On the outside we are, but here, nah, we're just a couple of banged up buggers in here." Yozo answered. "Places like this are neutral zones, anyone injured is welcome, grudges have to be left at the door. Least, that's what Naruto-sensei says."

"Uzumaki Naruto, right?" Kijuro asked, thinking about the kid who his father told him had saved his life.

"Yep, that's him." The brunet confirmed with a slight nod.

"My father seems to have a lot of respect for him." The injured teenager said quietly.

"I don't blame him, Naruto-sensei has saved my life a couple times now. Actually, I was his first patient when Yamada-sensei was still alive." He chuckled, touching his jaw. "I kept mouthing off about him just being a brat, when Yamada-sensei told him to administer the anesthetic he caught me right on the chin and put me out cold. Never bad mouthed him again after I cam to, kid has a hell of a left jab."

"Thank you Yozo-san, I appreciate that." Naruto said, causing both men to look over to where he was making the bed. "I'm glad to see you two getting along so well too, some times you get a couple people from different gangs next to each other and they spend the entire time threatening to kill each other or actually trying to. "

"With you here, no way in hell I'd try- one lesson from you was enough Naruto-sensei." Yozo chuckled. "Hey, aren't you supposed to be at the academy?"

"The real me is. I'm just a shadow clone." The blond stated. "But don't make the mistake of thinking I'm any weaker than the original."

"And risk getting kicked out? No way." The older man chuckled. "I guess it's nap time for me then. Talk to you later kid, if you're still here anyway."

"He's different that I thought he would be." Kijuro said aloud, a few minutes after Yozo was asleep.

"How so?" The sun kissed clone asked, pulling up a stool to sit next to the bed.

"I just thought that the guy who almost killed me would be, I don't know, some kind of monster or something. But, now that I've met Yozo-san, I think that if things were different... Maybe we might have been able to become friends." The older boy sighed.

"Who says you can't?" Naruto questioned, getting an odd look from the boy. "Seriously."

"We're from rival gangs Naruto-san, we can't be friends- we're supposed to be enemies." The raven haired teen remarked.

"Doesn't mean you can't at least have a solid mutual respect for each other. Personally, I've never seen the point of wars, gang related or otherwise." The blond stated. "Then again, I'm a medic, I see things from a different point of view. Fighters take people apart, I put them back together. From my angle, everyone looks just about the same. Everyone has blood, everyone has guts, unfortunately, I'm all too familiar with how they work and where they go."

"Is there a point to all this, I'm about to lose my lunch- and I haven't even eaten." Kijuro remarked, looking a few shades greener than before.

"Sorry. The point is, it's a small world and everyone has just a short life. Why not make the best of it and make as many friends as possible?" He concluded with a smile.

~*~*~

Naruto walked lazily out of the academy with his new hitai-ite in hand to take a seat on the tree swing offset from the building to watch the crowd of parents and children who had graduated interacting with a wistful smile on his face. He could just hear Yamada-shishou congratulating him on the accomplishment and then telling him to get back to work not ten seconds later with the word 'brat' somewhere in the conversation. In all honestly, graduating wasn't as big of a deal as people seemed to make it out to be. The exam itself was composed of a fairly simple written test followed by a series of practical exams that ended with with a practical test of one of the basic three ninjutsu skills, usually either the body replacement or clone technique because of the simplistic nature and low requirements of the academy taught transformation technique. This year they did clones and all a person had to do was make three to pass. One Uchiha 'I'm-better-than-you-are' Sasuke had, of course, gone above and beyond that and made a dozen clones just to show off. Just for his own amusement, Naruto made three perfect clones of himself and two of the most pathetic copies of himself that anyone had ever seen. It had taken a minute of discussion between Mizuki and Iruka to decide how to score him for that performance. They ended up deciding just to pass him on the three good clones, but to knock of a couple points from his over all score for the two failed clones.::

As the blond sat on the wooden swing and listened to the conversations, he couldn't help but muse about how pathetically simple the academy graduation testing was. While it was true that he had far more advanced training than his peers when it came to both charka control and the ninja arts in general, he had easily passed with an average score after accumulating over two days worth of fatigue through the use of shadow clones from when he had bee treating patients the night before. After a moment of thinking on the subject Naruto decided to chalk the low requirements up to peace time conditions. Personally he hoped that if the conditions remained up long enough maybe people would forget how to make war all together. It was a fools dream, he knew that very well, but it was still nice to fool himself every once in a while into thinking that maybe he wouldn't wind up up to his elbows in organs and bodily fluids because of territory disputes or some such bull at least one day a week. It was a good living of course, or it paid well at the very least, but no amount of pay ever got rid of the memories that came with the job of fixing broken bodies.::

With a small shake of his head Naruto pushed those thoughts from his mind and decided to search through his fellow graduates, or the ones he knew at least. Nara Shikamaru was first up with his parents, he and his father sharing the same lazy, almost drowsy look really as his mother tried to get them to be more excited over the event. Then there were Akimichi Chouji and Yamanaka Ino, both their mothers promised a special big meal for their children. Both Chouji and his father Chouza were getting excited of the prospect, being large men with an appetites for good food easily twice their combined size, Ino however was not so happy and was protesting that she was on a diet and that such a meal would ruin it.::

Shikon Ami was standing next to her mother, who was busy bad mouthing him about becoming on of the villages newest soldiers where she though he couldn't hear her and was about to say something she shouldn't before her friend stopped her by reminding her they couldn't talk about 'that'- which of course made Ami, the natural gossip she was, more than a little curious about the subject. Next came one Haruno Sakura, who, much like her friend Ino, was protesting her mother wanting to make her a special meal, claiming she was on a diet so she could look her best for Sasuke. The boy in question had already left the academy before any of the other students, feeling no need to sit and listen to his fan girls as they blathered on with their parents.::

From the Inuzuka clan Kiba came next to his sight as he stood with his mother and sister. Both were equally beautiful women though in very different ways, Hana had a softer teenage beauty about her where as her mother Tsume had a hardened and mature, almost feral beauty that, when combined with a domineering personality and undeniably powerful presence, drew many subtle (and a few not so subtle) looks to her, including a couple from Naruto himself. Though he would never admit it aloud, while he found Kiba's mom to be more than just a little attractive, she scared the hell out of him most of the time. It wasn't because she was ever mean to him, but there was just something about her that scared him- apparently it had scared Kiba's father as well, as he had learned from one strange conversation with the dog trainer. From the way the younger boy was practically vibrating from excitement, Naruto guessed his mother had finally agreed to let him have some alcohol. The blond had never understood his classmate's obbession with getting the legal mind altering beverage, though he supposed he really had no place to speak because of his smoking.::

Passing over the faces he didn't really get to know he noticed that Shino had already left with his father, which wasn't all that surprising considering the nigh-xenophobic ideas many people had about the Aburame clan. They were fairly nice people in their own way, though many had an almost coldly logical air about them, if a person managed to get close to them some actually would display a fairly good sense of humor- something evidenced on a half-dozen or so occasions of Kiba actually getting Shino to chuckle at some of his jokes. The one time Shino had actually outright laughed at something, half the class ran home fearing the end of the world- which only seemed to amuse the bug user that much more.::

Moving on from the missing Aburames Naruto's gaze settled on the Hyuuga sisters Hinata and Hanabi, he didn't actually know anything about Hanabi, just that she was a little less than two years younger than her sister and was supposed to be some sort of prodigy- hence why she was a twelve year old graduating with a class of fourteen and fifteen year olds. Both girls were cute in their own ways. Hinata in the 'make buttons weep with envy' way and Hanabi in the preteen wanting to be treated like an adult instead of a child kind of way. Hinata he was a little more familiar with because they had been in the same class for a couple years, she was overly shy and had a sweet tooth to rival anyone. She hated hurting people and was fond of many different kinds of flowers. Oh, and lets not forget the crush she had on him, he was aware of it, even if he never really showed it, it was kind of fun to make her blush in his opinion. As said before, she's cute enough to make buttons cry and would only become cuter when embarrassed.::

"Yo, Naruto, what's with the long face?" The soft tenor voice of his teacher Mizuki asked, causing the blond boy to look up curiously before giving a small shrug. "Upset about not getting the rookie of the year title?"

"A little." Naruto answered quietly, it was a lie but he was curious so he made sure to keep the skepticism off his face as he subtly analyzed the older man as one thought passed through his mind.

"You know, there's still a chance for you to get it." Mizuki said with a practiced caring smile and the tiniest glint of greed in his eyes when he saw Naruto's eyes widen in genuine surprise.

"What do you mean?" The blond asked, focusing all of his attention on his pale teacher- not wanting to miss a single nuance in body language of the older man the man.

"Well, you see, every year, teachers from the graduating class are allowed to select one student from their group to take a special test," The older man lied with extreme ease, pausing for a moment to make sure he had his student hooked- ever the skilled actor, Naruto faked it and let his teacher think he was being reeled in hook, line and sinker. "This test is different from the standard graduating exam and a great deal tougher. Which part of the reason why it's given only to one student in each class. It actually can do a couple things if the student succeeds. For instance, if the chosen student were to have failed the standard exam, they could actually be graduated with full honors after passing the test. In your case, it can get you the title of rookie of the year if you can pass it. I have to warn you though, since you've already passed, it will be a lot harder than it would be for a person who's failed."

_'My bullshit senses are tingling'_ Naruto thought to himself, keeping up his enamored facade. "What do I have to do?"

"Well, Iruka and I feel that you're ready for one of the more challenging tests." Mizuki said with a smile as he paused to take a small breath. _'I can't believe he's actually falling for this. Looks like the trophy for actor of the year goes to Mizuki.'_

*~*~*

"So Mizuki told me I have to sneak in here and 'recover' the Scroll of Sealing, and that's the story. What do you think?" Naruto asked the elderly village head as he took a slow puff from his pipe.

"I see, and he thinks you actually believe him?" Hiruzen, more commonly known as the Sandaime Hokage, asked as the blond blew out a lungful of smoke.

"I know." The blond agreed with an incredulous look on his face. "Seriously, do people think I'm that stupid? I'm only considered one of the top fifteen trauma surgeons in the elemental nations. Well, kind of."

"If you were better known outside of the slums, I'm sure you would be Naruto-kun." The elder man said with a small nod. "It's a pity Tsunade-chan isn't here, I'm sure she could have helped to make you into one of the top five. A true pity indeed."

"Medical jargon aside old man, I want to be the one to take Mizuki-teme down." Naruto stated as he finished off his cigarette, extinguishing the last embers in the ash tray on the Hokage's desk as the older man gave him a curious look.

"You are good, Naruto-kun, probably one of the best genin ever produced by the academy, but Mizuki is a veteran Chuunin. Are you sure you can take him down?" The Sarutobi clan elder asked cautiously.

"Of course, I'll have surprise on my side." The blond stated, getting that look that just screamed a concerned and mildly upset 'Naruto' which made him give a sheepish smile. "Well, surprise and enough uniquely concealed explosives to level an entire city block."

"I see. When do you plan to do this?" Hiruzen asked.

"Tonight. I want to make it as convincing as possible, so, for now, don't alert the ANBU. If I need back up, I'll send for it." The blond answered.

"Very well, but please be careful Naruto and remember to expect anything." The older man stated, getting a nod before the blond before him disappeared in a puff of smoke- along with the cigarette butt in his ash tray- both of which caused the monkey summoner to sigh while leaning back in his leather chair and muttering. "That boy and his clones."

~*~*~

Naruto's patience was starting to wear thin as he waited in the clearing designated by his traitorous teacher. Gone was the bright orange track suit that had all but become his trademark during his tenure as a student under Yamada Taro and all throughout his days in the academy. In its place he wore a burnt orange leather trench coat trimmed with black over a simple outfit made of dark steel toed boots, bound-legged black shinobi styled trousers and a dark grey T-cut shirt. Out of ingrained habit the blond once more found himself smoking a cigarette as he waited for the chuunin to show up so he could be taken in to custody. He looked up when he heard a rustling in the trees and noticed someone running at him out of the trees as the end of his cigarette approached.

"Naruto!" A familiar voice called out as an equally familiar scarred face came into view.

"Iruka-sensei?" The surprised blond questioned as his favored teacher came to a stop a few feet away from him.

"Naruto, what have I told you about smoking?" The older man asked in a lecturing tone as he removed the cigarette from the blond's mouth and extinguished it under his foot before pausing and shaking his head. "Sorry, force of habit. What I meant was, do you have any idea how much trouble you've caused? What were you thinking?!"

_'Yeah, definitely Iruka-sensei.'_ Naruto thought blandly before speaking. "Better question Sensei. What are you doing here?"

"What?" The brunet asked as confusion wrote itself all over his face.

"I'm waiting for Mizuki-sensei, I wasn't expecting you." He explained. "So, what are you doing here?"

"I-I came looking for you after Mizuki-senpai told me about your prank." Iruka said in a confused tone.

"Ah. Crap." The blond groaned, shoving his teacher back when he caught a dark metallic glint out of the corder of his eye and getting hit leather coat cut open enough to reveal the chain and woven mesh armor beneath the surface. "About time you showed up Mizuki."

"Hmm, I suppose this is the part where I say, 'Naruto give me the scroll' and Iruka shouts at you not to give it to me." The pale haired chuunin stated as he looked between his stunned colleague and glaring student. "Looks like I didn't fool you like I thought."

"Nope, but I played you like a finely tuned instrument." Naruto smirked.

"Tch, this complicates things." Mizuki stated with a heavy sigh.

"What the hell is going one here?!" Iruka demanded.

"The short version is that Mizuki-teme is a traitor and the Hokage gave me permission to bring him down." His student answered flatly.

"M-Mizuki?" He questioned, turning to his teaching partner as he jumped down from his perch and landed with trained grace.

"He's got me there, but," The traitor agreed, pausing long enough to snap his fingers to signal for three more people to emerge from the trees. "It doesn't really matter because both of you are going to die."

"You know, I didn't really see this coming, but at the same time," Naruto paused, looking over the three new arrivals- two men and one woman. "It doesn't really surprise me all that much. Feels a little predictable, you know?"

"Pretty brave for a kid who's about to die." The lone Kunoichi stated, a small bemused smile crossing her painted blue lips. "Oi, Mizuki-kun, if he survives, can I keep him?"

"Why would you want the demon brat?" Mizuki scoffed, smirking as a thought crossed his mind. "Hey brat, since you're going to die anyway, you want to know the truth?" Iruka's eyes widened.

"Mizuki! Don't you dare!" The dark haired chuunin shouted as Naruto pulled out a blue topped pack of cigarettes from his pants pocket before tapping it against his hand to free one of the thin paper cylinders.

"Truth?" The blond boy questioned, glancing at the man as he pulled the cancer stick out before returning the box to his pocket and pulling out a plain stainless steel lighter.

"Mizuki!" Iruka yelled as his former comrade as he began laughing.

"Have you ever wondered why the villagers hate you? I'll tell you why." Mizuki smirked, quickly kicking Iruka in the stomach when the younger chuunin attacked in an attempt to stop him- carelessly letting him drop to the ground as he removed his foot before continuing. "You know how the nine-tailed fox attacked twelve years ago and was supposedly killed by the Fourth Hokage?"

"Yeah. So?" Naruto said passively.

"It's all a lie." He stated, watching as his student examined him lazily, never fully turning away from Mizuki's back up.

"Mizuki, don't." Iruka gasped out as he did everything he could to bring air back into his deprived lungs.

"The Kyuubi was never killed, it was sealed into a child that night." The pale haired chuunin continued, ignoring his former partner. "_You_ are the Kyuubi reincarnate Naruto, that's why everyone hates you. Even Iruka hates you for killing his parents." In the long second that the blond continued to stare at him over his shoulder, Mizuki flicked a concealed knife out from his wrist and buried it into Naruto's back only to watch the blond burst into a cloud of smoke as a dry log dropped to the ground. "What the hell?"

"It's amazing how often the academy basics come in handy, like the body replacement technique for instance." Naruto called out, causing everyone to turn to where he was sitting on top of the log pile beside the worn down cabin. "You know Mizuki. Here I was hoping to get you on just one count of treason and now I've got your ass on two. Not to mention, I'm completely free to do whatever I want with you now because of that little dagger you tried to put in my back."

"What?" The three foreign shinobi baffled asked in unison.

"Let me explain for the ignorant among you, so mainly Mizuki-teme," He quipped, noticing Mizuki's partners smirking at the comment. "Konoha Black Constitution, the holy scroll where all of Konoha's secret laws are written. Article Three Four, Amendment Seven Two, Section A. Under penalty of high treason, no one may speak of the lineage and or Jinchuuriki status of Uzumaki Naruto. Section B. Well, that one can be skipped because it's not important at the moment. Section C. Only Uzumaki Naruto or the acting Hokage may divulge his statuses to those ignorant of them without legal repercussion. And my personal favorite at the moment, section D. Uzumaki Naruto has full right do defend himself and or any relation by or in any way he deems fit against anything he deems a significant threat. If Uzumaki Naruto is incapacitated for any reason the means of subsequent punishment against the threat may be decided by either his legal guardian, if any, or the acting Hokage."

"Y-you knew?!" Mizuki sputted.

"Yeah, duh, kind of had to be told after I killed the assassin sent after me when I was nine." He stated as he jumped off the firewood stack while twiddling his as of yet unlit cigarette with one hand. "Iruka-sensei, are you okay? Can you stand?"

"Yeah, I can." His teacher answered, getting back to his feet as Naruto walked over to him casually.

"Good, now, Sensei, I need you to take the scroll and run back to the Hokage," The blond stated, handing the large scroll off to his mentor. "When you get there, tell him I will probably need that back up."

"Hey! What makes you think we're just going to let him leave?" Mizuki demanded and Naruto returned the cigarette to his mouth.

"Simple, to get to him, you have to go through me." Naruto stated, shedding his coat and tossing it off to the side as Iruka clutched the scroll. "Go, Iruka-sensei, I can hold these guys off until the ANBU gets here."

"Right, be careful Naruto." Iruka nodded, using the strap on the scroll to hold it across his back before running off.

"Oi! Where the hell do you think you're going?!" The largest of Mizuki's reinforcements demanded charging off to intercept the academy teacher only for have receive a deep cut across his face from the tanto Naruto had mounted on his back.

"Dumb ass, what did I just say?!" The blond demanded, kicking the man back before he could recover- he took the moment the other four spent staring at him to light his cigarette and put his lighter away again.

"Little bastard!" The newly scarred man cursed as he pressed a meaty hand over the bloody gash.

"I get that a lot." The blond remarked, taking a small drag from his cigarette. "Now, lets get this over with."

Fairly predictably, the large dark haired man charged him with a resounding cry, easily leaning out of the way when Naruto threw the tanto at his head- letting it pass him by and embed itself into the ground a few feet behind Mizuki, who merely shook his head while thinking about the terrible aim Naruto always displayed in the academy and how at least that much about him seemed to be real. The nameless bulky shinobi running toward Naruto smiled wickedly after the blond disarmed himself and increased the speed, not noticing or paying any heed to the dark lines spreading across Naruto's arms and less than an inch above the base of his neck.::

A soft green glow enveloped the fair haired teenager's hands an instant before his enemy was upon him, far to late for the attacking man to react to his own mistake. The muscles in his arm tensed and locked painfully the moment the boy's palm touched his forearm, the large man was immediately made well aware of how thoroughly he screwed up before the second and third open palm strikes landed and was already plotting ways to hurt Mizuki for missing a very key piece of information. The brat was a damn medic. Another unusually strong kick to the chest knocked him back most of the way to his teammates as the blond took another slow drag from his cancer stick, burning it down a little less than half way.::

"Damn it Mizuki! You should have told us he's a medic!" The large man protested as he tried to force his arms to open.

"I didn't know!" The man in question protested as his former student spat out his cigarette towards the partially crippled man, leaving a wispy trail of smoke in it's wake, two feet away from it's target the burning end flared to life like an explosive note, giving the other two barely enough time to escape before...

"Ah, shi-." The large man managed to get out before he was engulfed in a large explosion.

"Y-You killed Kenji!" The other male spat, glaring at Naruto. "You bastard!"

"Boom." Came Naruto's response, a hissing sound was heard from beside the man and Mizuki instinctively began to jump away from the knife Naruto had thrown moments earlier.

"Fu-" Was as far as the other man managed to get through his profanity before the explosive tag hidden on the hilt of the tanto detonated, killing him and launching Mizuki through the air while burning a good portion of his back and legs.

"What the hell?! Are you a medic or a damn pyromaniac?!" The kunoichi demanded.

"A little of both I suppose. I do so enjoy watching things go boom." Naruto said in a relaxed tone as he turned to face her. "You know, I can't say I've ever seen your village's headband before. Serious question, who's bright idea was it to make it a musical note?"

"Don't insult Otokage-sama!" The white haired woman ordered.

"Sound shadow? Let me guess, your village is the hidden sound?" He asked, getting a small nod from her. "Wow, sounds like somebody has a complex."

"Shut up! I won't let you insult the Otokage!" She shouted, charging at him and lashing out with a pair of needles to scratch him on the cheek just barely enough to draw blood as he dodged her. "Hah! You're dead!"

"What, poison?" He asked, touching a glowing hand to his cheek to pull out a glob of blood which he carelessly discarded. "I think you're forgetting something.":

"Just die damn you!" She shouted moving to jump at him again before suddenly finding herself being pinned to the ground beneath a fairly large man in a ceramic wolf mask.

"Uzumaki-san, sorry for the delay." The man in the wolf mask apologized while striking the woman in the neck to knock her out before she could make any more fuss.

"Kind of looks like he handled everything himself to me." The ANBU in the hawk mask stated as he looked over the scene. "Kind of a disappointment actually, I had wanted to fight."

"Rookies." Wolf sighed before returning his attention to the blond. "You did well Uzumaki-san, better than I thought you would when Umino-san informed us of your predicament."

"Thanks, I think." The blond boy said after a short moment of silence.

"Rookie. Escort Uzumaki-san to the Hokage for debriefing, the rest of us will wrap things up here." The man ordered, getting a less than enthusiastic 'yes, Captain' in response.

"So, what kind of medic uses bombs?" Hawk asked as soon as the two of them were away from the other ANBU.

"The kind of medic who comes out of a four on one fight with only a couple minor scratches." Naruto smirked.

"Smart ass." The rookie ANBU remarked with a click of his tongue.

"Better smart than dead." Was the blond's retort as he stuffed his hands in his pockets.

* * *

A/N 2: And, that's it for chapter one. For those wondering, I could not resist the south park reference. So much so that I actually changed the name of one of the minor OC's so I could do it (Hisaki was originally named Kenji). Next note, only Yamada Taro is supposed to be referred to as Shishou in this chapter. Shishou specifically refers to a teacher to my knowledge, where as Sensei can also be used to refer to doctors and a couple other things if I remember correctly, that's why Yozo refers to Naruto and Taro as '-sensei'.

Also, for those wondering, more background will be given later on Naruto's teacher, for now, those wondering can rest knowing that the name Yamada Taro is the Japanese equivalent of the English name John Smith. It's not his real name (I haven't come up with that yet).

Now, before I forget, I would also like to thank Daxlein for giving me permission to borrow his idea from his story Finite Life. Black Constitution Article Three Four Amendment Seven Two is a reference to his (guessing male gender, really don't know, sorry) idea of Amendment 3472. Read Finite Life if you want the original details. I'm leaving section B completely alone in my version, I changed it up a bit to make it sound (hopefully) a bit more legalese (the cursed tongue of lawyers). Sorry to any lawyers that offended, I have trouble resisting bad jokes when I'm tired.

Now, as a note, this chapter without authors notes came to 8508 words long. Which is about twelve pages worth of work in my version of openoffice.

In summation, thank you for reading, please leave a review if you want so I'll know what you think. The next chapter isn't started yet, but it will introduce the new team when I do get to it. If you see any glaringly obvious mistakes that I missed in my delirium please point them out so I can fix them. Also, please note, refusal to use the word Jutsu after naming a technique does not count as a mistake, merely a difference of opnion. Thank you for your time, I'm going to go pass out now.

24CaratCoal.

**Edit 2**: For those wondering, after all the editing was done for this chapter the word count had increase to 8814. Still just twelve pages though. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed already, I'll try to avoid making so many grammar mistakes next time. Thanks again Dalxein.


	2. Chapter 2

Hey all, finally got the second chapter done, managed to save the thing from the virus my computer got (yay). Anyway, please read and enjoy (or don't if you prefer)

Also, Shenmi Meiren, it's pretty much just a physical thing, but it also helps later on in the story. Mostly it comes down to the fact that a fifteen year-old is more developed than a twelve year-old both physically and mentally.

**Once again, I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

=2=

Naruto sighed as he finished cleaning up the last part of is home, sitting up and taking his hands off the scrub brushes he had been using to stretch them in order to get them out of the position they had been in for the last couple hours. With his apartment complex-turned-clinic clean enough to pass a spot inspection at or from the local military hospital with flying colors the young blond nodded to himself before forming the simple cross seal used as a focus for one of his favorite ninja techniques, forming a half dozen mimicries of himself that were perfect down to the last unruly golden hair on his head. Leaving them to run things he slipped a small bag of Yamada-shishou's personal soldier pills into his weapons pouch before pulling on his repaired trench coat, though it was hard to tell it had been damaged in the first place from his practice with stitching, and after a moment of thinking on it he also returned his belled collar and bracelets to their rightful places on his body from where he had discarded them the night before for the sake of stealth.::

It struck the fair haired demon host as humorous that people who had done nothing but glare at before now gave him the occasional polite greeting from across the street as he walked to the academy. Nobody really seemed to recognize him without the tacky neon orange jacket and pant set they had gotten used to seeing him in for so long, at least they didn't recognize him until they got close enough to get a good look at his face, at which they would scowl and walk around him as far as they could while muttering something about the demon brat trying to trick them. He ignored the bitter comments made by those people and simply enjoyed the pleasantries while they lasted, tomorrow he wouldn't get them, he knew all too well, but for the moment he just indulged in feeling somewhat normal for once.::

The walk to the academy was uneventful and the young blond found himself arriving earlier than he usually did without people trying to find new and innovative ways to slow him down while attempting to look innocent about it. There was no one else in the classroom by the time he arrived so he simply took one of the many empty seats and laid he head down to rest while he waited for everyone else. Unfortunately for the sleep deprived medic, his rest was extremely short, all of about ten minutes to be more precise, at which time many of the other genin hopefuls decided to file in, starting with his least favorite among the group.::

Sasuke scanned the room quickly before noticing Naruto already sitting down with his head resting on the desk and moving to take a seat opposite of him. It was true that the two of them didn't get along very well, Sasuke thought that the blond was a strange combination of lazy and annoying and Naruto thought the raven haired boy was a stuck up prick. But so long as they ignored each other both could tolerate the presence of the other, which worked to an advantage for the Uchiha because Naruto seemed to act as a natural repellent against all but the very most determined of his fan girls and he usually found some way to get rid of even those two harpies.::

As the time until Iruka arrived grew shorter more and more students began to trickle into the room in their own small groups and just as Sasuke predicted, Naruto acted as the perfect repellent to rid him of that pesky fan club. It was rather amusing to the Uchiha to watch the eyes of so many girls light up with hearts as soon as they laid eyes on him, only to go fleeing in any other direction when they saw Naruto- though he would never allow it to show. The raven haired boy let his momentarily rest on the blond who hadn't moved since he arrived in the classroom, to the casual observer he looked like he was sound asleep. Sasuke knew differently though from the physical cues his body unconsciously gave off like the small start he gave when the last loyal Uchiha entered the room and the almost imperceptible shifts in his posture as he adjusted to keep better track of where people were as they moved about the room and formed into their own little groups.::

When Hinata's younger sister took a seat at the desk in front of them, Sasuke realized that most of the class had already arrived and it was almost time to begin. Much to his relief, though he tried not to let it show, his own personal banshees had yet to arrive. No sooner had that thought crossed his mind he heard a familiar squabbling from the upper door about who was going to sit next to him, the soft whimper he let out upon seeing Ino and Sakura fighting to get through the door first was heard by only one person (who immediately began snickering at his expense). To his dismay the pink haired harpy reached him first, while he didn't like either of them particularly well, at least Ino took his subtle hints to shut her yammering skull cave when she was next to him.::

"Naruto! Move your ass!" The fan girl ordered loudly, causing the blond to sit up and give her a blank stare.

"Shut up forehead, I'm sitting next to Sasuke-kun today!" Ino proclaimed, bumping her 'Rival in Love' out of the way before looking at Naruto with a more gentle expression than Sakura had before she spoke again. "Naruto-kun, may I please sit next to you." His expression never changed, only the recipient of it and Ino found herself staring into his bored blue eyes. "Well?" She asked after a few awkward seconds.

"No." Naruto answered plainly as he turned to face forward again, causing Sasuke to suppress a snicker.

"What do you mean no?!" The blond girl demanded, barely able to track his next movements when he suddenly lurched forward and seized the young Hyuuga girl who gave a surprised shout as she suddenly found herself being moved against her will into the seat next to him.

"As you can see, the seat is taken. Good day, Ino-chan." He said with a pleasant smile that seemed to light the fires of rage in the girl, evidenced by the furious shade of red her face turned.

"Naruto." She began as a tick mark formed on her forehead, but it was about as far as she managed to get.

"Good morning class." Iruka cut the blond girl off as he walked through the lower door, glancing upward momentarily. "If you would all find a seat so we can begin."

"Why the hell did you do that?" Hanabi hissed at him quietly as Iruka began his short lecture on the meaning of being a genin of Konoha.

"It's not good for young girls to use such language, Hanabi-chan." Naruto said with a smile, earning himself a glare from her. "As for why, well, I'd rather not listen to a couple fan girls bickering about who gets to sit next to who. And you were within easier reach for me than anyone else."

"That doesn't give..." She started to protest before he placed a finger to his lips to silence her before motioning his head to Iruka, who was now glaring at her for interrupting his speech.

"Well, since the entire mood has been ruined thanks to somebody..." Iruka paused and Hanabi had the decency to look abashed. "I just want to finish by saying, congratulations to all of you on passing, you've all made me very proud to call myself your teacher. Now, listen up because I'm going to start calling out team assignments." As the older ninja began to off his list, people began to look either excited or disappointed when the learned who they would be with. "...Team Seven will consist of Hyuuga Hanabi, Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto. Team Eight will consist of Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata and Inuzuka Kiba. Team Nine will consist of Haruno Sakura, Hiashi Hibiki and Shikon Ami. Team Ten will consist of Akimichi Chouji, Nara Shikamaru and Yamanaka Ino. That's it for Team assignments, you all will be released for a two hour lunch break and then you're to come back here to meet your new Jounin instructors. Good luck kids."

"Great, a full two hours to kill." Naruto mumbled as he got up.

"Naruto, if you have a minute, I'd like to talk with you." Iruka said before the blond got too far away.

"Sure sensei." He nodded, using the desks to get past the departing students easily and ignoring the comments about him being a loser for being held after even when it wasn't a class. "What's up?"

"Naruto... I wanted to talk with you about the incident with Mizuki." Iruka said in a quiet voice.

"Oh, this is about the me saying a killed a guy already?" Naruto asked and his teacher gave a nod. "I see. Iruka-sensei, I really appreciate your concern. It means a lot more to me than you might think. But you don't need to worry about it. The Hokage and Yamada-shishou put a lot of work into getting me put back together after that. It's not really something I like to talk about, but, how about after all this whole getting the teams set up mess if out of the way, you swing by the clinic and we can talk about it there."

"Clinic?" The brunette questioned.

"Yeah, my home is still a clinic. After all, Yamada-shishou taught me just about everything I know." He said with a smile before moving toward the door quickly to catch up with his team. "See you later, sensei!"

"I was wondering if you wanted to maybe go get some lunch together or something." Naruto heard Sakura asking his new teammate out as he approached them.

"No." Sasuke said sharply.

"Yo." The blond announced himself as he approached. "Sasuke, Hanabi-chan, since we're a team, I think we should go get some lunch together. What do you say?"

"Like I just got done saying. No." Sasuke said before turning and walking away.

"Fine then. Your loss then bastard!" Naruto called out after him. "What about you Hanabi-chan, you up for some lunch?"

"I told you, if he doesn't want to go out with me, why the hell would he want to go out with a freak like you. That massive forehead of yours probably repels any guy who comes near you." He heard Ami insulting the other kunoichi a few meters away.

"Actually, would you mind waiting for a minute. Something has caught my attention." The young medic remarked, walking away before she even got a chance to say anything.

"Yeah, thanks for letting me talk. Jerk." Hanabi muttered to herself as she stuck her tongue out toward his retreating back childishly before following him quietly.

Sakura sighed as she picked at the lunch her mother made for her, once again she had made to much- the woman just didn't seem to understand the word 'diet' when Sakura said it to her. She hated the way she looked and she would have been more than willing to give anything to change it, especially her oversized forehead, the damn thing had plagued her all her life and everyone poking fun at it had made her extremely self-conscious about it and Sasuke's constant rejections didn't help her any. Still she held out the hope that one day he would return her feelings and maybe even say something along the lines of.

"You know, your forehead is so large and charming, it just makes me want to kiss it." A gentle voice said off to her side and immediately her face was graced with a blush normally reserved for Hinata when the voice said exactly what she wanted to hear, it was gone in the next instant when she saw who owned the voice and was quickly replaced by a scowl. "Sakura."

"Naruto." She spat the blond's name like a curse. "What do you want?"

"Easy cherry cheeks, I'm just here to talk." He said in the same tone as before.

"Well I don't want to talk, so buzz off." Sakura growled.

"You know, your forehead really isn't that large." Naruto remarked as he pulled out a pack of cigarettes and began to tap one out for himself. "I don't see why you let it get to you."

"Like you know what it's like, you've never been singled out for anything in your life. You can do anything you want and nobody cares." She huffed.

"Oh, really?" He blond smirked, looking up at the middle aged man walked past them. "Excuse me sir, do you have the time?"

"Go back to Hell where you belong you little bastard." The man spat before doubling his pace as Naruto lit the butt in his mouth.

"You were saying?" He asked almost smugly.

"He probably called you that because of all the pranks you've pulled." She huffed. "And put that thing out, it stinks."

"Sorry, force of habit." He apologized, pinching the end of the smoke to extinguish it which caused Sakura to cringe before speaking again. "Ami was wrong by the way Sakura, actually, she's wrong about a lot of things, it kind of seems to be her little niche in life. Point is, you aren't a freak Sakura."

"You heard that?" She questioned.

"Well these things on the sides of my head aren't just there for decoration you know." He chuckled as he tugged on one of his ears. "I hear a lot of things people say Sakura, and I've learned a lot of things from it. First and foremost, just because somebody says something, whether it's to your face or behind your back, it doesn't mean that it's true."

"Duh." The kunoichi prospect chuffed.

"Then why do you believe her? You're smarter than that Sakura, don't take this the wrong way, but the reason you have such a large forehead, is probably to make people like Ami show us all how stupid they really are." He remarked, glancing at her for a moment before smiling softly. "Of course, it's also probably to make room for all the extra brains you're packing around up there."

"And just what does that mean?" She asked, giving him a doubtful look.

"It means, when you want to be, you're smart Sakura. Scary smart." He stated, chuckling when she gave him that look that was halfway between flattered and annoyed. "Sakura, why do you want to be a ninja?"

"What?" She asked, caught off guard by the sudden serious question.

"It's not a tough question. For what reason do you want to be a soldier in Konohagakure no Sato's armed forces?" He paraphrased to leave no room for misinterpretation as she blinked at him owlishly.

"W-well, my dad was a ninja before he died. I always used to look up to him when I was little." She said, looking away before frowning. "Why am I even telling you this?"

"Because I'm cute, sweet and undeniably charming." He grinned as she cast him an irritated look. "If that's your only reason for becoming a ninja though, you should give up."

"What?" Sakura blinked. "Of course it's not my only reason. I want to..."

"I really hope this sentence doesn't contain the word 'Sasuke' in it. Because if it does, you really need to find a new profession." He cut her off quickly. "You shouldn't become a ninja because of someone else."

"Oh, right, like you've got all the answers." She huffed.

"No, I don't. But I do know a bit more about being a shinobi that most of the other graduates." He stated as Sakura's irritation turned to curiosity. "Over the years we have painted a pretty little picture of ourselves for all the civilians, to hide what we truly are- it's in the nature of out job after all, deceiving people. As a whole, we are not the honorable warriors we've made ourselves out to be, we just tell ourselves and everyone else that we are."

"What are we then?" Sakura asked, half so she could throw his words in his face and half out of genuine curiosity.

"Murderers." Her blood ran as cold as his voice when he spoke that word. "No matter what else we do, it comes down to the simple fact, that above all else we are taught to kill from a young age. That pretty little picture was painted so we could sleep at night."

"Why are you telling me this?" She asked, feeling him take her wrists lightly in his grasp so he could hold them up for her to see.

"If you become a kunoichi, these hands of yours will be dyed red with blood. It will never come off, no matter how hard you scrub." He said softly. "I have no right to tell you what to do with your life, I'm just speaking the facts as I see them. But if you really want to become a ninja, to keep yourself at least partially human, you need a reason to fight and kill for. Don't fight for the parent who died, fight to protect the one who is alive. Don't fight just for a school girl's crush, fight for the ones you truly love and the ones who love you back."

"W-when did you start thinking like this?" She asked, a slight blush on her face as he let go of her hands.

"Who knows." He smiled as he stood up. "Sorry, but I have to go. I kind of abandoned my cute little teammate to come and speak with you." He paused for a moment as he looked into the woods. "Isn't that right, cute little teammate."

_'What the hell?'_ Sakura wondered as he stood there for a moment.

**"He's crazy! Seriously, why is he trying to act so cool all of a sudden?"** The outspoken part of her personality exclaimed in her mind just before Hinata's younger sister came out of the trees.

"You knew I was there?" Hanabi questioned.

"Of course, senpai always knows." He grinned. "So, are you ready for lunch?"

"Who says I want to have lunch with you?" She asked with a dangerous glare.

"You followed me didn't you?" He pointed out with a vulpine grin as he set a hand on top of her head. "C'mon, I need to stop by my place to check on a couple of things. I'll pick up my wallet and then we can go get a meal."

"Whatever." The younger girl said, trying to sound nonchalant as she turned away to hide the small blush on her pale cheeks.

"H-hey, Naruto." Sakura called out as the pair walked away. "What's your reason?" Her voice sounded slightly nervous but she ignored it as he looked back at her.

"Get to know me, I might tell you some day." He said loudly enough for her to hear him clearly.

*~*~*

Hanabi felt her eye twitch as she walked down the streets with her eldest teammate, while she had started to feel a small level of respect for him after his speech to Sakura she began to losing it again as they strode on. She knew he smoked, it was surprisingly well known throughout the academy and part of the reason he was considered a delinquent, what was bothering here was how much he smoked. A cloud of heavy smoke billowed out of his mouth as he dropped and extinguished the remains of his eighth cigarette, the young Hyuuga had learned to be tolerant toward the habits of peasants like the blond- but eight cigarettes in less that ten minutes was just ridiculous- and for some reason she felt slightly irked that not only was she having to push herself slightly to keep up with his pace, he didn't even seem slightly out of breath from all of it.::

"Ah, here we are." He stated with a smile as they came up to a tall, and unusually clean looking, building in the slum distract of Konoha, Hanabi's keen white eyes immediately fell on the large kanji painted above the door.

"Spider?" She questioned.

"I don't really get it either, it was Yamada-shishou's idea- he thought it was funny for some reason." The blond shrugged as a middle aged man with one eye and a tightly curled punch perm came up to them quickly. "Masura-san, come to visit Kijuro I take it?"

"Yes, Naruto-dono." The man said with a smile before his deep brown eye fell on Hanabi. "A friend of yours?"

"One of my new teammates, Watabe Masura, meet Hyuuga Hanabi. Hanabi-chan, this is my friend Masura." Naruto introduced them quickly before of them stepped into his home. "Masura-san, I'll go check on your son, would you mind keeping Hanabi-chan company?"

"Of course, Naruto-dono." The Yakuza man said with a kind smile.

"You really seem to respect him." Hanabi remarked as Naruto paused before some pictures on the wall to press his hands together and give a respectful bow.

"Of course I do. Many of the people in this part of the village do." Masura answered with another small smile.

"Why? He acts like an idiot most of the time." She stated.

"Does he? I suppose you would think that." He remarked quietly as she looked him over sternly. "You probably don't know this, considering what you said, but Naruto-dono is a skilled medical ninja. No, no that's not the right word. He isn't skilled, he is blessed with talent in the field. He has saved my life, my son's life and many many others since Taro-dono began instructing him."

"He's a medic?"Hanabi asked, looking up at him in genuine confusion as he nodded. "There's got to be more of a reason than that, you don't just call someone 'dono' for something like that."

"I call him Naruto-dono for many reasons, Hanabi-san. Though I'll admit, because of who he is, I was wary when I first heard Taro-dono had taken him in. I honestly thought it would bring about nothing but trouble." Masura said in a serious tone before smiling again. "I'm glad I was wrong about him."

"You're hiding something." She stated with a glare that caused him to laugh.

"Yes, I am. But you're too young to understand what, and telling you would get me executed." He said, patting her on top of the head much to her annoyance before a silence settled over them.

"Masura-san. Do you know why he wants to be a ninja?" The young girl asked, this time it was Masura's turn to look confused. "Earlier, he said something about needing a reason to fight. I was wondering if you knew what his is."

"I've known Naruto-dono since he was little more than a child." Masura stated, walking toward the wall Naruto had stopped at earlier. "But I cannot honestly say I know how he thinks. If I were to make a guess though, I would say these people are his reason." As he spoke, he clapped his hands together and bowed to the pictures like Naruto had done before with Hanabi following in suit. "This is a memorial to the patients that have been lost over the years."

"That doesn't make sense. Earlier he said..." She spoke quietly.

"Don't fight for the parent who died, fight to protect the one who is alive, don't just fight for a school girl's crush, fight for the ones you truly love and who love you back." Naruto quoted for her, causing the girl to jump. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

"Naruto-dono, how is he?" The older man asked as he turned around.

"He's doing quite well, I'll be able to release him in a couple days if he keeps up his progress." The blond smiled. "You can go up and see him now if you'd like."

"Yes, I would." The one eyed man said before turning to Hanabi and giving a polite boy. "It was a pleasure to meet you Hanabi-san, I apologize for leaving so quickly- but I am a father with a waiting son."

"He seems nice." Hanabi remarked as the man made his way out of the room the same way Naruto had earlier. "And you didn't scare me by the way."

"Of course not, you just jumped a foot in the air randomly because you like to and it is oh-so-appropriate for a Hyuuga to do so." He said with a smirk.

"You just startled me is all." She huffed as she crossed her arms over her chest childishly.

"You just need to learn to pay attention to your surroundings more." Naruto remarked.

"I was paying attention." She grumbled.

"So you let the teenager with bells on sneak up behind you intentionally." He chuckled.

"Bells?" The adolescent brunette parroted before he reached up and gave his bell collar a small jingle. _'How did I miss those?'_

"Come on, lets go get some lunch." He changed the subject with a smile.

"Are you going to smoke again?" She asked as she gave him an odd look as they walked out of his clinic.

"Not if it bothers you." He answered.

"It does." Hanabi stated without a moment of hesitation.

"Alright, I'll refrain from smoking around you as much as possible." He nodded without ever losing his smile.

~*~*~

"So where are we going anyway?" Hanabi asked as she strained herself slightly to keep up with the blond.

"My favorite restaurant in all of Konoha of course." He answered as he looked down to her. "Do you need me to slow down Hanabi-chan?"

"No!" She shot at him rather loudly. "I mean, I'm fine."

"If you're sure." He shrugged, ending the conversation for a little while until they came to a stop outside a small food bar. "Here we are."

"Ichiraku ramen?" Hanabi questioned. "You brought me to a ramen bar?"

"Yes." He answered quickly before pushing though the hanging flaps and taking a seat before Hanabi joined him a second later with a scowl on her face. "What's wrong with you?"

"I don't like ramen." She stated flatly as a beautiful young woman came out of the back wearing a a plain white bandana to keep her hair back and fairly simple outfit.

"You don't like ramen?" She questioned.

"That's what I said." Hanabi said flatly to the serving girl.

"Forgive the stuck up brat, nee-chan, she doesn't know any better yet." Naruto said quietly, earning a glare from his teammate.

"Naruto-kun, you know you're in trouble right?" The older girl stated, getting a confused look from the blond. "You were supposed to come by after you graduated."

"I knew I forgot something." He said as his eyes widened slightly. "I'm sorry Ayame, I ended up getting sidetracked by something really important and I couldn't come by."

"Alright, if you say that it was important, I'll believe you." Ayame said, causing the blond to perk up instantly. "So, what'll it be Naruto-kun?"

"One special and some kuzuyu for me, what about you Hanabi-chan?" Naruto asked, turning to his teammate who was still glaring at him. "You can order anything you'd like."

"I told you, I don't like ramen." Hanabi reiterated.

"Onigiri and a small bowl of beef for her." The blond boy ordered for her. "Would you like anything in particular to drink." At that the young Hyuuga got a smirk on her face.

"Sake." She stated, giving him a defiant look.

"Aojiru." He corrected before Ayame nodded and moved out of sight. "Sake?"

"You said I could order anything." She remarked flippantly.

"You're too young for that sort of thing." Naruto stated.

"No I'm not, I'm an adult now." She said, pointing to the hitai-ite on her arm.

"You're twelve." He remarked without looking at her.

"Keh, you don't have any room to speak, you're only fifteen and you smoke more than a chimney." She huffed.

"True, but you're still to young to drink." He said as Ayame came back with their drinks. "Besides, and adult would have even bothered with this argument."

"He's right. You could have just re-ordered sake and he probably would have let it go." Ayame added before walking away again.

"That's not fair." Hanabi pouted.

"Life's not fair. That's rule number one." He smirked.

"Shut it smokestack." She ordered, crossing her arms over her chest again as he began laughing at her. "Yeah yeah, yuck it up. You've probably got lung cancer."

"Oh yeah? Then I dare you to use those pearly little eyes of yours and take a look at my lungs." He said flatly.

"I don't want to look at your lungs." She growled.

"Do it anyway, you'll be surprised what you see." He ordered, getting another glare from her. "If I have cancer, I'll give you a hundred thousand silver bu." The blond smirked inwardly when he noticed her eyes light up at the thought of that much money.

"And on the off chance that you don't, what do you get?" She asked in a suspicious tone.

"The satisfaction and relief of knowing I'm right." He stated, getting an odd look from her. "What? You don't have anything that I really want."

"Fine." She sighed before the veins around her eyes bulged out and her tiny white pupils became slightly more pronounced. "What the hell?"

"Hmm? See something interesting?" He asked with a haughty edge in his voice as she deactivated her bloodline.

"Your lungs are completely clean. That shouldn't be possible with how much you smoke." She said in a stunned tone. "Your lungs should at least be slightly black."

"I'm a unique case when it comes to how things like smoking and drinking affect me." He stated. "Besides, I'm a medic, it's not exactly like it would be that hard for me to keep tar from building up in my lungs while I'm smoking."

"Whatever. You probably didn't have the money anyway." She huffed, looking away as Ayame brought out a small bowl of ramen and a tray with four medium sized onigiri on it and set it down in front of her.

"I don't make bets unless I can back them." He stated, as Ayame left once more but not before he noticed the small burn on her hand. "You'd probably faint if you heard how much I really make in a year with that little clinic."

"Would not." Hanabi muttered to herself grabbing one of the onigiri and taking a large bite._ 'Why did I get stuck on a team with this idiot, I don't care what that Masura guy thinks. That haircut makes him look like a Yakuza wannabe. What would he know?'_

"Here you go Naruto-kun. One house special." Ayame said with a smile as she put the large bowl down in front of him, pulling back until he reached out and grabbed her wrist lightly. "Naruto-kun, you know how I feel about people grabbing me like this."

"You're hurt." He stated as black lines began to appear on the bottom of his neck and from beneath the sleeves of his heavy coat, seemingly unaware of Hanabi staring at him in surprise. "I can't just let my onee-chan walk around with a painful burn like this."

"You fuss too much Naruto-kun." She chided him slightly as the soft green glow of medical chakra engulfed both of her hand and both of his to heal the small burns. "I may be a civilian now, but I was a ninja for a few years you know. It's not that bad."

"I know, I know, but I don't like seeing you hurt." Naruto said, retracting his hands from her now unblemished hand and turning to his ramen as the lines disappeared again. "Anyway, how goes your search for the perfect beau?"

"Ugh, don't remind me. Every suitable guy is either taken, too young or gay- hell, one guy was even all three." She sighed, pulling out a seat on her side of the counter.

"Ouch, that one had to be awkward." The blond murmured after swallowing the first mouthful of his densely packed ramen.

"Oh, you have no idea." She chuckled as she shook her head. "So, why couldn't you stop by yesterday?"

"I'll tell you later." He stated, shifting his head slightly toward Hanabi.

"Oh, something to do with that huh?" The pretty waitress asked.

"What are you to talking about?" Hanabi asked, unaware of the specks of rice around her mouth left over from her first rice ball.

"Sorry, you're too young to get it." Ayame apologized with a polite smile.

_'Too young? What could she mean by that?'_ The pale girl wondered before her white eyes widened and her face turned a deep shade of red. "How can you talk about that in public?!"

"Oh, is that what you think we're talking about?" Naruto laughed as Ayame bit her lip. "Honestly, I never suspected you for a pervert Hanabi-chan."

"You're the ones talking about sex!" The girl exclaimed, Ayame bent low over the counter as she began howling with laughter.

"Actually, we were talking about something else that you aren't allowed to know." Naruto stated, and just to further embarrass her he continued with a smirk. "You're the only one here thinking about sex."

"Th-that's not v-very nice, N-Naruto-kun." Ayame managed to get out past snickers as she tried to reign in her laughter as the younger girl tried to disappear into the corner.

"No, but it is funny." He grinned, forcing her to bite her lip as she retreated to the back room.

"You are a very mean spirited person." Hanabi said as Ayame's laughter died out in the back, her face still a noticeable shade of crimson.

"I know. 'Senpai is a big jerk'." He chuckled.

"I'm not calling you senpai." She grunted as she picked up another rice ball.

"Whatever you say firecracker." He said, earning another glare as he dug into his bowl.

"How can you eat that?" She asked, watching him eat with a morbid fascination. "Ramen is terrible."

"You don't have the right to say that until you've tried yours." He answered after swallowing, leaving the bowl half empty.

"There's nothing healthy about ramen, it's all empty calories." She protested. "Why would I want to put that kind of thing in my body?"

"Because it tastes great." He stated. "Besides, Ichiraku ramen is different. Teuchi and Ayame are both retried shinobi. Teuchi started this little bar after Ayame was born so he could be there for her while she was growing up. This isn't an ordinary ramen bar, unlike most ramen, Ichiraku ramen is made with shinobi needs in mind- so it's much healthier than what civilian places make."

"That's right." Ayame said as she returned, her face looking slightly less flushed than before. "I apologize for laughing earlier, Hyuuga-sama." _'The look on your face was just priceless though.'_

"Oh, that's right. I haven't introduced you properly. Ayame, this is Hanabi. Hanabi-chan, this is my dearest friend Ichiraku Ayame." Naruto said, momentarily turning serious.

"Nice to meet you." The kunoichi-turned-waitress said with a graceful smile.

"A pleasure." The young Hyuuga girl said, forcing her own smile.

"My, what a friendly little porcupine you are." The blond boy remarked before turning back to his bowl and resuming the consumption of its contents.

~*~*~

The three genin of team Seven were alone in Iruka's classroom, Hanabi was sitting patiently in the same position she had been in for the last three hours, Sasuke was doing his brooding thing again and Naruto... Well, Naruto was juggling erasers for some reason the other two couldn't quiet bring themselves down to understand. Their teacher had apparently decided to redefine the word 'late' and they were stuck waiting for him, which led to a shared sense of irritation with the man, or woman as Hanabi hoped.::

"This is ridiculous." The girl sighed as she stood up and started stretching her body out to get rid of the pent up stiffness.

"Think of it as a test of patience." Naruto remarked as he continued juggling the erasers.

"All hail the wisdom of the clown." Sasuke huffed. "What other sage advice do you have for us?"

"How about, 'go play in traffic'?" The blond said with a smirk.

"Bite me Uzumaki." The dark hair boy growled.

"Nah, I'd probably catch something." He retorted, catching Hanabi's smirk out of the corner of his eye as another period of silence fell over them.

"Hey, Naruto, what were those lines I saw on you earlier?" The Hyuuga asked to distract herself and get rid of the slightly oppressive air.

"It's a special seal Shishou was working on before he died." The blond stated, setting down the erasers.

"Do go on. This sounds interesting." A new masculine voice asked, causing all three to look and see a tall man with gravity defying off white hair leaning against the door frame.

"No, I don't think I will." He remarked as he slid off the desk. "You who I think you are?"

"If you three are team seven, then I'm your teacher. Meet me on the roof in five minutes." He ordered before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

"He seems interesting." Naruto grinned. "See you two on the roof." As he said that he too went up in smoke.

"Does that seem a little unfair to you?" Hanabi asked who grunted in response before walking toward the stairs.

By the time the two genin got to the top of the stairs Naruto was standing on the guard rail smoking a cigarette as the jounin leaned on the railing not far from him. Hanabi scowled slightly as her elder teammate dropped down to the roof casually jumped down and extinguished the butt with his foot as he exhaled another toxic cloud before walking to the steps and taking a seat on the far right, while Hanabi separated him from Sasuke who took the left side. There was a brief silence as the jounin observed his potential students with his uncovered eye while they did the same to him, beneath his mask he smirked- he liked this group, most of the others before them had already been fidgeting by the time it got this far.::

"Well aren't you the boring ones." He remarked dryly just to see if he could get a rise from them.

"Speaking from experience?" Naruto asked evenly, noticing the man's half-mask tighten a little as his lips moved to either smile or frown.

"Moving on." The jounin said firmly, not bothering to acknowledge the jab verbally. "Since you want to be part of my team, I think it's right that we get to know each other. So if you wouldn't mind introducing yourselves. You know, tell everyone your name, what specialty is, your likes and dislikes. Hobbies, dreams for the future. That sort of thing."

"Why don't you go first, sensei?" Hanabi suggested politely.

"Very well, my name is Hatake Kakashi, you don't need to know what my specialty is right now. I like certain things and I have a few dislikes. My hobbies... Well, I've got a few of those. As for my dreams... You're too young to understand them."

_'So, we just get to know his name._' Sasuke and Hanabi thought as they shared an unamused scowl.

"Why don't you go next, since you volunteered." Kakashi said, focusing his single eye gaze on Hanabi as Naruto pulled a small grey book from a hidden pocket in his coat.

"My name is Hyuuga Hanabi, I'm a taijutsu specialist and I am fully capable of filling the role of a scout should the need arise. I like studying and perfecting my clan fighting style. I dislike ramen." As she spoke she shifted her gaze to momentarily glare at Naruto who was busy reading whatever was in his book. "My hobbies are calligraphy and writing poetry. My dream for the future is to become the next head of the Hyuuga Main Family."

_'Calligraphy? Is she channeling an old geezer or something?'_ Naruto wondered as he continued to scan the pages of his Bingo Book.

"Alright. Next up you, the brooding one." Kakashi said, pointing to Sasuke.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke, I'm a ninjutsu specialist. I don't like many things and I have many dislikes. Hobbies are a waste of time. I don't really have a dream, what I do have is an ambition. I want to kill a certain man and restore my clan." Sasuke said, not wanting to waste any more time than he had to with such a pointless introduction.

_'Great, a girl with old man hobbies and the poster boy for homicide are on my team.'_ Naruto sighed, quickly folding the corner of the page he wanted before and returning it to his jacket as Hanabi scooted slightly away from Sasuke.

_'Yeah, I was kind of expecting that.'_ The jounin thought, resisting the urge to shake his head. "Bell boy, you're next."

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto, my specialties are a secret- because I have a feeling you're planning something." He stated, getting looks from his teammates as Kakashi blinked in surprise. "I like smoking, ramen sparring and playing pranks on people among other things. I dislike people who look down on others for no reason, my... condition, and blood. My hobbies. Nah, that would be telling. As for my dream. My dream is very simple. I'm want to become the Hokage."

"You, the Hokage?" Sasuke scoffed.

"Yeah, you got a problem with it fan-boy?" The blond said calmly as he pulled out a cigarette and put it in his mouth.

"Is there any particular reason you have that dream Naruto?" Kakashi asked, partly out of curiosity and partially to keep Sasuke from picking a fight with the blond.

"I want to stop all the senseless bloodshed. I can't do much about it where I am now, people just won't listen to someone like me. If I were the Hokage, people would at least listen." He answered easily, ignoring the looks Hanabi and Sasuke gave him at the small revelation.

_'Interesting, a jinchuuriki who wants to change the world. I wonder if you really can Naruto-kun.'_ The scarecrow thought quietly as he reexamined the boy with his cyclopean gaze. "Alright. Since that's out of the way, I guess I should congratulate you three on making it far enough to take your genin exam."

"Genin exam? But we already passed that yesterday." Hanabi stated flatly.

"No, we passed the academy graduation exam. The genin exam is what's coming next." Naruto said, locking his gaze on the jounin as he shook his head.

"Very good Naruto-kun, it seems you're smarter than people seem to think." Kakashi said in a lighthearted tone. "You're right about what you said, you have already passed the graduation exam, and you just have one more test to go before you can join the ranks of Konoha's elite."

"So what kind of test is it?" Sasuke asked, not wanting to waste his valuable time with this joker.

"It's a survival test. Now, I know what you're thinking, you've already done survival tests in the academy. But this one is a little different." As he spoke, the pale haired jounin began to chuckle slightly and Naruto the hairs on the back of his neck began to stand on end when the chuckle turned into a laugh. "This test is to see if you're really ready to become shinobi. Actually, this is pretty funny. I swear, you're going to flip when you here this part. When it comes to the genin exams, usually only about three teams from every graduating class manage to pass. So the failure rate of this test is about sixty-six percent." The jounin started to laugh again when he saw the expressions on the faces of the three genin-hopefuls, Sasuke's was pure shock, Hanabi's was mild terror and Naruto's expression was an odd mixture of suspicion, confusion and a tiny bit of irritation all packed into a cool stare and small frown combination. Then, something Kakashi never expected happened.

Naruto laughed, it started as a small chuckle but quickly grew into a full blown laughing fit.

"You were dropped on your head as a child, weren't you?" Hanabi asked as she turned to face him.

"You mean you don't get it?" He asked, doing a damn good job of looking completely innocent.

"Get what?" Sasuke asked in an exasperated tone.

"No, sorry, you won't get it if I explained. You have to figure it out on your own." The blond said with a wide grin.

"You're a rather odd one, aren't you?" Kakashi asked, to which the blond merely shrugged. "Right. Meet me tomorrow at training field fourteen at oh-seven-hundred hours. I suggest you skip breakfast or you'll puke."

"Puke?" The youngest of the genin asked, only causing the man's eye to curve happily at them.

"Ja ne!" He exclaimed before disappearing in a puff of smoke, immediately Naruto's smile vanished as he stood.

"Eat a light breakfast tomorrow." The blond ordered softly as he turned to the other two.

"But sensei just told us not to." Hanabi pointed out, blinking when the boy pulled out that little book once more. "What's that?"

"Bingo Book." He stated, turning to the page he marked before reading aloud. "Hatake Kakashi. AKA Sharingan Kakashi, AKA Copy Ninja Kakashi. High A-class Jounin from the Hidden Leaf. Skilled in both Tai and Gen-jutsu. Expert in Ninjutsu. Notable features: Always wears a mask, constantly covers his left eye. Transplanted Sharingan in left eye- origin unknown. Rumored to have copied over one thousand Ninjutsu techniques since acquisition of sharingan. Recommendations. Do not engage alone. Those below jounin level should flee on sight."

"How did you find all that out?" The Kunoichi asked skeptically.

"Bingo Book. You can find them if you know where to look, this one's about a year old." He answered, once more tucking his book away. "See you in the morning." He said as he walked away calmly.

*~*~*

"Are you just going to stand in my window all day, or are you going to ask a question?" The Sandaime Hokage asked, not bothering to looked up as he quickly scanned through his paperwork and signed what needed to be signed.

"What can you tell me about Uzumaki Naruto?" The addressed man asked, as he stepped fully into the Hokage's office.

"Plenty. Is there anything specific you would like to know, Kakashi-kun?" He pressed.

"He was fairly vague in his introduction of himself, though not unduly, he seems to have pretty good instincts." The white haired masked man stated. "I'd like to know what his specialty is. And, if you know the reason, why he dislikes blood even though he's a ninja."

"His specialty and that particular quirk are very closely relate." The elderly man chuckled as he leaned back in his seat and looked at his subordinate. "Naruto-kun is a medic, a particularly skilled one at that. He runs a clinic in the slums. Yamada Taro's old place."

"Yamada Taro... Wasn't he the defector from..." Kakashi began.

"Yes, he was." Hiruzen cut him off quickly. "He was also Naruto-kun's teacher in the medical arts."

"I see. And the blood thing?" The jounin asked.

"As I said, Naruto-kun is a skilled medic. He's worked on and saved patients that even the best medics in the military hospital would likely have lost." The village head stated. "He's been actively working on patients since before he turned eleven. In the process, he has seen so much blood he has come to detest it."

"I see." Kakashi nodded.

"There is something else?" The elder veteran questioned.

"Yes. Earlier I overheard Naruto talking about having a seal that was placed on him by Yamada-sensei. Do you know what it does?" He asked.

"Yes, it's a prototype medical seal Taro-san was working on before his death to increase the number of active medics in the field." Sarutobi stated. "As you know, the most difficult part of medical techniques is purifying ones chakra of unique and potentially harmful traits enough that it can be easily accepted by another person's body for healing purposes. The goal of the seal is to remove the impurities so that not only can a potential medic react faster in a crisis, they will also have more chakra to work with since they don't have to devote part of their reserves to removing the impurities. For Naruto-kun, the seal is a necessity because his chakra contains too many harmful impurities for him to clear out in a timely manner. He knows how to purify his chakra of course, but most of the patients he sees simply cannot wait for over half an hour while he does so."

"Thank you." The jounin smiled beneath his mask as he moved toward the window.

"By the way, Kakashi-kun, it would probably be in your best interests not to underestimate his abilities." Hiruzen remarked.

~*~*~

Naruto smiled to himself as he leaned against the outer wall of his clinic with a lit cigarette in hand, enjoying the cool touch of the wind against his lightly tanned skin. It was a nice calm night, his patients were all resting and recovering- and thankfully behaving themselves. To alleviate some boredom from both himself and his temporary wards, a few of his shadow clones transformed into his sexy technique form with appropriate (in the loosest sense of the word) uniforms. It was an act that went over well with the hospitalized men. In the middle of a drag he heard his name being called and looked over to see his two favorite chuunin walking toward him, Iruka with a pleasant smile on his face and Ayame with a takeout boxes in her hands.::

"Iruka-sensei, Nee-chan." He greeted them in the setting light of the sun.

"Hey Naruto-kun." The ramen girl said with a smile.

"Naruto, how many times do I have to lecture you about smoking?" The academy teacher asked not but a moment later.

"Hey, I'm entitled to a vice or two." The blond boy shrugged before dashing the cigarette out on the wall. "I take it you're both here to talk?"

"Yeah, we met up at the ramen stand, figured we'd kill two birds with one stone." Ayame said before holding up the two wooden boxes. "And, I brought ramen."

"Ayame-neechan. You are a saint." Naruto grinned as the tobacco stick disappeared with a flick of his hand and wrist. "We should go inside and eat it before it gets cold."

Neither of the brown haired ninja protested at the offer and quickly followed him into the modestly furnished clinic, taking the service elevator up to the third floor where the Naruto's private kitchen was so they didn't disturb any of the patients. They were fairly quiet but the mood at the table was pleasant at the three of them shared the meal, occasionally one of them would as an irrelevant question to break the silence. After all three had eaten their bowls the trivial questions slowly trickled to an end, Iruka was the one who finally broke the silence.::

"Naruto..." He began slowly. "I know how you said you've already worked through it earlier, but I'm still concerned..."

"You want to know about my first kill." Naruto said bluntly, at that moment the wall suddenly seemed to become very interesting to Ayame.

"Yes." Iruka nodded, glancing at the retired chuunin. "Does she..."

"Yeah, I know about it." Ayame sighed as she looked back. "How'd you find out though?"

"I brought it up after Mizuki blabbed about the fox." Naruto answered.

"He the reason you couldn't come?" She asked.

"Yep." He nodded before looked back to Iruka and sighing. "I'll give you the quick and dirty version of things, Iruka-sensei. Back when I was nine, on the night of my birthday, I was attacked by a chuunin level ninja while I was sleeping. I'm not really sure what woke me up, but I did, right when he was stand over me with a kunai in hand. Most of my memories of what happened are actually a bit of a blur, but I remember feeling absolutely terrified when he was attacking me. He nicked me a few times, the thing I remember most is when he stabbed me." Iruka's eyes widened at the admission but he held his tongue when the blond boy raised a hand to keep him from interrupting. "He just got me in the shoulder, but something about the injury just made me go berserk. Everything kind of went red. I remember thinking over and over again. 'I don't want to die'. Yamada-shishou came in sometime after that and managed to pull me off the guy, I came back to my senses after he backhanded me and when I saw how much blood I was covered in I just broke down."

"He backhanded you?" Iruka asked as his eyes widened.

"In his defense, I did try to stab him too." Naruto spoke up. "Inoichi, you know, Ino's dad, he kind of helped me piece my mind back together after wards. Two years of therapy later, I was well on my way to what you see today."

"Okay, I think I understand that. But, how does Ayame-san fit in to all this?" He asked, looking over to her. "No offense."

"None taken. How I fit in, is I was one of his therapists. Kind of. Before I retired I worked with the ANBU Interrogation and Torture department as a psychoanalyst, all of that was a bit too much for me so I ended up backing out." She admitted. "I started working for my dad after that, and then Inoichi came to me and asked that I help him with Naruto, since I already had a good degree of psychological training and Naruto already knew and trusted me at the time."

"I think I understand." Iruka stated, leaving a pregnant silence about them before he finally broke it once more to change the subject. "When we were down stairs, what were with the pictures of all those different people?"

"Those were patients that we were unable to save, Shishou started putting the pictures up there as a memorial to them." The young blond stated.

"I saw a young girl in one of those pictures. She couldn't have been more than eight. Why would she be up there?" Iruka asked, instantly Naruto tensed.

"H-her name was Otani Aiko, she got caught in that big warehouse explosion that happened a couple years back." He stated tensely. "She was a good kid. She really didn't deserve what happened to her."

"I... I'm sorry Naruto, I shouldn't have brought it up." The brunet apologized.

"Not your fault." He said with a sad smile. "It's not your fault."

"Aiko..." Ayame paused thoughtfully before her eyes widened in recognition. "I remember her, she used to chase you around all the time."

"Yeah, she was bound set and determined that she was going to marry her 'Naruto-sensei'." The blond boy nodded.

* * *

A/N: Well, that's the second chapter. I'd appreciate any feedback I get from this (by the way, all I have to say about what I've gotten so far is holy shit. As it stands no (from when I'm editing) I've gotten 14 reviews 1002 hits been placed on 10 different c2s 43 favorites lists and 77 author alerts. And that's just from the first chapter.) Anyway, thank you all for reading this. Review if you want, I do like getting them. Not sure when the next update will be, but the next chapter will definitely cover Kakashi's little teamwork test. I'm not sure if I'll do the Wave mission first or do a filler thing. I'm still debating that one. Right, so that's covered. Now I've got to say, hurray for character/plot development. I really hope this chapter doesn't suck too badly toward the end. I think it started off fairly well, but kind of got force together toward the end. Meh, maybe it's just my 'something bugs me about this' thing for this chapter. Also. Just because I can say it. Naruto smokes for a reason, that reason will be revealed toward the end of the Wave arc.

Now that that's over, thank you for your time. Review if you want, whether it's good bad or again with the monkeys of the drool and the pain and the rabies with the infecting by brain consumption.

24CaratCoal

P.S. Also, I really don't mind people pointing out any grammar errors that they find. In fact I appreciate it. Later!

**Edit: Thank you Shadow of a Life for pointing out that mistake. And thank you to everyone who has already reviewed.**


	3. Chapter 3

Major Update/Edit: Okay people, thanks greatly to the wonderful Reviews of Frozen-Requiem, this chapter has been edited and a lot of errors have been spotted and cleaned up.

Unfortunately, due to my own computers conspiring against me, DRtS is going to be put on and indefinite hiatus. The reason is very simple. I can't continue. Its not in the realm of physical possibility because I don't have access to the files to keep writing. I don't want to put this story on hiatus and I will try to get access back as soon as humanly possible, but for now there is nothing I can do. Perhaps when I have some money to fix/replace my desktop, I'll be able to continue. Until then, hate the man behind the story if you wish, hate the crappy cheap technology that's blocking the way if you'd prefer, or just make a sandwich. Nothing I can do in any case because the notebook computer I'm writing this from can't access my external harddrive, until that can be rectified, I'll look into a challenge or two that's caught my eye, because this computer does have OpenOffice- so I'm not completely dead to the world, just dead to my main stories. With that said, let the hate (or the sandwich making) begin.

Sorry.

A/N: Wow, sorry this chapter took so long. And sorry it's so short. Okay, it's not really short but it's short for me. Shorter than I like, only 7600 words or so (7632 for those who are really counting). It's short to me, but I'm kind of fond of this chapter. Also, for those of you wondering, I really wasn't milking this chapter for reviews, it was just hard to write. This whole damn story is hard to write! I have absolutely no medical experience (unless you could doctors visits) so I'm pretty much bullshitting my way through this. Sorry if the writing style changes throughout the chapter, this was written over the course of several weeks *cough*months*cough* and my writing style tends to change with time. I have not really done more than a basic run through of this. I think I got most of the glaringly obvious mistakes.

Also, there is a word in here that may offend some of you, so I'm going to cover that right now. I have used the word 'fag' in this chapter. It is not used in the context most Americans might think, it's another word for cigarette. I get tired or repeating words over and over again. Look it up if you don't believe me. So 'fag' in this story, not used as a demeaning term for homosexual, just as another term for cigarette because I'm trying (and likely failing) to be creative.

Now, my ranting is done, go forth and read this chapter and tell me what you think. Unless you stopped reading after the word fag. You people can just go away and do something else while the rest of us laugh at you behind your backs for being narrow-minded.

No disclaimer, everybody knows I don't own anything (I am poor! I make just enough to afford my 'R's. What the hell you you mean I'm ove budget?)

Moving on.

=3=

Goosebumps formed across Naruto's flesh when the chilly morning air ran over his bare skin as he was finishing off a cigarette on the roof of his clinic, enjoying the calming sensation that it gave him while he took a lazy hit. All too soon for his liking it came to an end when the burning ember reached the butt, with practiced precision he dashed it out against the wall and exhaled his lung full of the smoky gases before entering the roof door. His hands pressed together in a few quick signs as the heavy door closed behind him, he shifted his body and touched the chilled surface of the door causing inky black tendrils to spread out from beneath the surface and form intricate webs he could just barely begin to understand as they came together to form a defensive seal that glowed dimly for a moment before fading away.::

The blond's footsteps made no noise as he moved down the stairs with graceful ease and speed until he reached his small apartment area on the third floor, the clone making breakfast held up a hand and spread his fingers out slightly to signal that food would be ready in about five minutes or so. As he entered his sleeping quarters he saw his clothes laid out neatly across his bed and another clone leaning over his long trench coat with glowing hands, without looking up the replication dispelled itself and the memories of removing all the accumulated scents from his clothing. Naruto's hands began forming another, longer string of hand seals with complete focus on the task at hand- cleansing all identifiable traces of personal scent to make attempts at tracking him by scent a far more difficult task.::

_'Medical Art: Full Body Purification Technique.'_ He thought to himself as the seal set ended and the blue glow of unrefined medical chakra enveloped his body, the heavy tingling throughout his entire frame let him know that the technique was working- now all he could do was wait and keep his chakra flowing.

"Where are those idiots?" Hanabi hissed as she leaned against one of the training posts, it was nine o'clock and only Sasuke had shown up- some company he was.

"Yo! Sorry I'm late- chores took longer than I thought they would." A familiar voice called, causing the two genin to look over to where their elder sun-kissed classmate was approaching from.

"You're late because you were doing chores? What kind of stupid excuse is that?" Sasuke questioned skeptically.

"Well, someone has to keep my place clean and I don't have lackeys to do it for me- so obviously I have to do it." The blond said with a smile.

"You don't smell like cigarettes anymore." The Hyuuga girl noted when he got close enough.

"I also took a very long shower this morning." He amended.

"You're an idiot." The Uchiha stated flatly.

"Quite possibly, or it could just be a cover. I am a ninja you know." He stated jovially, momentarily giving the other two cause to wonder.

"Only an idiot would wear bells during a survival test." Sasuke stated as soon as he saw the numerous silver spheres strapped around the older teen's neck and wrists.

"Whatever you say fan-boy." Naruto remarked waving off the Uchiha's declaration and intentionally letting his bells ring out as he did so.

"How someone as stupid as you managed to pass is beyond me." The raven haired boy muttered.

"You say something chicken head?" The blond asked casually as he tucked his hands into his coat pockets, a small smirk tugged at the corners of Hanabi's mouth at the question.

"W-what did you call me?" The younger boy asked while a small anger tick formed on one side of his forehead.

"I called you chicken head, though I may have to correct myself." Naruto answered as he leaned slightly to one side. "Because from this angle your hair looks like a ducks ass. Hey! I think I've figured out who you want to kill! It's your barber! Am I right?" The kunoichi prospect started biting her lower lip at this point to keep a straight face.

"Naruto... I'm going to give you I five second head start." Sasuke warned tensely, releasing a level of killer intent that sent a chill down Hanabi's spine. "After that, I'm going to hunt you down and beat you into a bloody pulp."

"Now now, none of that please children." Kakashi said, appearing from out of nowhere. "You're going to need all of your energy for today's test after all."

"Yo. You're late." Naruto stated.

"Sorry, I had to rescue an old lady's cat from a tree; it was a black cat so I had to back track my entire route and go around to avoid any bad luck." The jounin said as his eye curved with amusement.

"You know sensei, lying like that is a bad thing." The blond scolded childishly.

"You were almost as late as he is!" Hanabi accused loudly.

"Yes, but my excuse is more plausible." He grinned as Kakashi set an alarm clock on one of the training posts.

"My excuse is more amusing." The jounin defended himself chipperly.

_'What did I do to deserve being stuck with these idiots?'_ Hanabi wondered as she turned her gaze to the sky.

"Is something wrong, Hanabi-chan?" Naruto asked, drawing her attention to both himself and their teacher- both of whom were giving her a concerned look.

"Don't call me 'chan' you idiot!" She ordered loudly. "You don't know me nearly well enough to be so damn familiar!"

"I thought all Hyuuga were supposed to be quiet and reserved." The eldest genin said quietly as he smiled at her kindly. "You're too easily provoked Hanabi-chan."

"I hate you more than you can imagine." She whispered, closing her pale eyes to take a breath to calm and recompose herself.

"Is that why you're picturing me naked?" He asked, instantly what little calm she gained shattered and her face turned a new shade of crimson- inwardly Kakashi was laughing boisterously at how easily the boy could get a rise out of the potential Hyuuga heiress, outwardly he merely smiled beneath his cloth mask. Sasuke just stared at him incredulously. "Honestly, I don't know how someone so young has become such a pervert."

"S-stupid! You're the one saying perverted things!" She shouted, still very red in the face as she lashed out at him with a kick only to have him jump over her leg effortlessly.

"Looks like the little crimson princess has a temper." He taunted, easily dodging, deflecting, ducking under and just generally avoiding the rapid fire attacks that followed.

"Hold still you damn monkey!" She shouted only to have Kakashi catch her last kick when the blond did as ordered.

"Listen, as amusing as this little scene is, we need to move on- or have you forgotten about my test?" The pale haired jounin questioned as he released her ankle.

"He started it." The blushing girl muttered as she and the blond walked back to the logs.

"True, Naruto, stop provoking your teammates." Kakashi ordered sternly. _'No matter how funny it is.'_

"I promise nothing." He said in a solemn tone that everyone nodded to momentarily before they realized exactly what he said.

"Just work with me here Naruto." The older man sighed. _'What did I do to get stuck with these three?'_

"Okay, so, what are we doing?" The blond asked, shifting gears once more.

"It's quite simple really..." He stated, pausing for a second before pulling a pair of bells out of his sleeve with a flick of his wrist and letting them jingle a bit. "All you have to do is get a bell and you pass."

"But there are only two bells." Hanabi pointed out with a scowl.

"Wow, you really are a genius." Kakashi said in an overly kind manner, his eye seeming to curve happily at her as a desire to hurt him was born in the young girl. "And because there are only two bells, at least one of you is guaranteed to fail this test. Just to make thing interesting, the person or people who fail to get a bell will not only be tied to one of those posts, they will be forced to watch whoever passes eat lunch with me- after which, they'll be sent back to the academy for retraining."

"A-are you serious?" The Hyuuga asked as she stared at the older man.

_'Looks like I might not be so burdened by these idiots after all.'_ Sasuke thought while keeping his mask of indifference firmly in place.

"So, at least one of us is guaranteed to fail, and none of us are guaranteed to pass." Naruto paraphrased. "Is that what you're saying Kakashi-sensei?"

"Yeah, that about sums it up." Kakashi confirmed with a nod. "Any other questions?"

"Are you serious?" Hanabi asked again, her pale eyes open wide with surprise.

"Very." The older man answered flatly as the tied the bells so they rested in one of his belt loops. "Anything else?"

"Hey, Sasuke, what was it you said about bells and survival tests? I forget." Naruto asked with a large grin plastered on his face that only seemed to get wider (if such a thing was even possible) when Sasuke gave only an annoyed grunt in response.

"The alarm is set for one, so, if there are no other questions, let's begin the test. And don't forget to come at me with the intent to kill. It's the only way you'll stand a chance of getting a bell." Kakashi said lazily. "Go!" At that word Sasuke and Hanabi split off in opposite directions with a decent amount of speed, for genin, while Naruto just stood there for a second before shrugging and vanishing in a swirl of wind and leaves. "My my. What good listeners we have this year."

Naruto scowled deeply as he received the memories from his shadow clone, something seemed off about this so called test and he didn't like it. From his small niche hidden within a tree a safe distance away from the infamous copy ninja, or at least what he hoped was a safe distance, he slipped a hand out from behind the leaves and branches to make a few quick signals to a similarly hidden clone. It was time to test his potential teacher, and hopefully at least get some clues as to the real purpose of the test. A small smile replaced his frown as the newly dispersed replications orders formed in his mind, as well as those of the shadow clones he had seeded in various places around the practice field. It didn't really matter to him if he passed this test or not, at the very least, he'd get to mess with one of the best jōnin in the entire village. This could be fun.::

Kakashi stood calmly in the middle of the training field with his favorite book in hand, casually reading over the pages he had long since memorized as he kept track of his students, two of them at least. Both Hanabi and Sasuke were fairly skilled for rookie genin, and hidden themselves quiet well in just a few seconds, they probably could have fooled most chūnin who didn't know they were in the area, but the laid back man wasn't a chūnin. He was a jōnin, and for damn good reason, he could have found those two in his sleep. It was their third teammate who was bugging him even if it didn't show, while most civilians thought ninja could disappear into thin air, no shinobi could truly do such a feat- at least not to his knowledge.::

After performing the standard body flicker to leave the area, Naruto's chakra simply vanished without a trace and that meant one thing. Naruto had never actually been there from the beginning. Actually, that wasn't what was frustrating him, what was came down to the fact that he couldn't find the boy's chakra anywhere in his range and that meant one of two things. The first, was that Naruto was at least a couple klicks away from him, unlikely but possible with shadow clones, and second was that Naruto was suppressing his chakra. The second one was far less likely in his mind than the first, jinchuuriki had massive chakra reserves that were difficult if not down right impossible to suppress so completely through natural means, and Naruto was the host for the most powerful of all the demons. Suppression was just too...::

"Hey! Kakashi-sensei!" The sudden shout made him tense instantly before turning around to see the boy he was just thinking about walking up to him casually- the bells around his neck were silent and his chakra signature was strangely absent. So much for that theory.

"Naruto, you know it kind of defeats the purpose of stealth for you to come out in the open like this. Right?" The jōnin asked the blond teen.

"Maybe, but I've got a question." He stated, stopping a good twenty feet away.

"Hmm, we're in the middle of a survival test Naruto, I don't think this is an appropriate time for questions." He remarked casually.

"Come on sensei, please?" The teen pleaded.

"Alright, what do you want to know?" Kakashi asked, keeping a lazy eye on the boy.

"What's the point of this test?" Naruto asked simply.

"To get the bells of course." He answered happily.

"No. That's the objective, sensei. I asked for the point." The blond said flatly, beneath his mask Kakashi gave a wide smile at that. "You and I both know that no one on this team is a match for you. We're just genin, you're a jōnin."

"Well. It seems that your grades were very far off their mark. Good job." Kakashi complimented, shifting his gaze slightly as a small rabbit emerged from the bushes and began nibbling on a blade of grass before returning his attention to the potential ninja.

"Shishou was a good teacher." Naruto shrugged. "Now, are you going to answer my question?"

"Like I said, you're not off to a bad start. If you want to know the point, you're going to have to puzzle that out yourself. Unless you'd like to ask someone else for help." He said calmly before suddenly pivoting on one foot and punting the rabbit a good distance away. "Nice try by the way. Very creative."

"Meh. Mediocre at best." The blond shrugged as the flying rabbit suddenly exploded into a cloud of smoke.

"Yeah, you're right." Kakashi stated, snapping his book closed and turning to face the boy fully as he slipped his little vice back into his weapons pouch. "But still good enough to get some effort out of me."

"Alright." Naruto said, sliding into a relaxed but solid stance as he brought his arms up before himself. "Let's have some fun."

Hanabi felt her eye give a great twitch as Kakashi sent the cute little bunny that had been innocently nibbling on grass flying with an overpowered kick, she liked cute little bunnies, she did not like seeing them being kicked about by bullies. It had come as a great surprise to her when said bunny had disintegrated into a cloud of chakra smoke, revealing it to be nothing but a mockery of her favorite animal (not that she would ever publicly admit such a fact) created by her eldest teammate. Granted, she probably shouldn't have been nearly as surprised by the deception as she was, Naruto-sen... I mean... that blond idiot, was too unpredictable from what she had seen in her interactions with him.::

In that moment Naruto charged at their teacher with his hands curled up like he had claws, closing the distance between the jōnin and himself far faster than she could have from a dead stop like he had done. His first kick was met with a halfhearted block from Kakashi as he also lashed out with a slashing strike toward the white haired man's belly only for the strike to be deflected with a leg block that turned into a snap kick aimed for his chest that caused him to jump back so it only lightly brushed his coat. The entire sequence seemed only a vague blur of motion to her inactive ancestral eyes, lasting less than a second, it was slightly disconcerting to her how fast the older boy was. With a trickle of chakra her white eyes flared to life just as Naruto rejoined his fight with Kakashi, allowing her to watch the match up at a more normal speed.::

As she watched the duo, Hanabi fell into one of the many lessons drilled into her head from a young age and she began to analyze their fighting forms. The scarecrow of a jōnin was using an advanced form of the academy taught taijutsu for his part and holding his own fairly easily against the blond, Naruto's taijutsu form however was not so easily read. A punch from him could lead to another punch or a kick or a headbutt or any other of a number of attacks, his style had no set pattern to it, but it was far from a brawling form. Every move he made was deliberate and wasted very little energy at all and though be barely seemed to be using any of his chakra, she guessed that he was holding back on doing that intentionally. One thing that caught her curiosity about him though, as she watched the fight between the genin and the jōnin, she noticed that Naruto's chakra pathways were almost as well developed as Kakashi's were and far more developed than her own were.::

Intently the young Hyuuga watched her potential teacher and teammate as they sparred, her eyes somewhat adjusting to the lightning pace of their strikes. It was slightly odd, she noted, that Naruto never once took a direct hit from the jōnin, always managing to either completely avoid a strike from the cyclopean man or at the very least deflect it so that the high speed blows did far less damage than they would have otherwise. It only served to make the blond that much more confusing to her, there was no way he should be at this level, even if he had special training as a medic (actually, that part only confused her even more, medics usually weren't very good at hand-to-hand combat like he was doing and usually settled for using poisons at a distance.) She watched as her teammate began to set himself up for a moderately powerful kick while her teacher braced to block it, both she and the jōnin were surprised when a punch connected with his jaw instead and knocked him off balance long enough for the young medic to break away.::

"You actually hit me." Kakashi remarked at he touched his cheek and eyed the boy. "I have to say, you're very fast, but you don't have a whole lot of power behind your attacks. I'm really surprised you're far enough along in that style to actually trick me like that too. I could have sworn you were going to kick me. Nice job."

"Thank-" Naruto began before a lightning fast punch struck his stomach and drove the air from his lungs.

"Don't let your guard down." He hissed in warning before his student exploded in a cloud of smoke. _'Huh, another shadow clone. So he's already divided his power into at least thirds. I wonder if he even notices the drain.'_

"Follow your own advice!" The shout came from opposite sides as two identical blonds charged at him armed with matching yatagans, gently curving swords that were fairly popular in the Wind Country among the military powers and outlaws alike.

"I'd hate to see you die!" A third Naruto exclaimed as he came up from behind just as the jōnin was deflecting the weapons that had been aimed for him, moving to take the copy ninja's head off with his own sword.

"Your concern is touching." Kakashi said softly, his head ducked down and his hair now shorter in the back as he skewered the left-hand Naruto with the sword of the one on his right, and the one behind him with the sword of the one of the left after letting that Naruto decapitate the right hand counterpart- more than a little impressed with how long it took the mortally wounded clones to dispel.

"We're supposed to beat this guy?" Hanabi whispered quietly as she watched everything unfold from the safety of the trees. "Unreal."

"You really are trying to kill me, aren't you?" The jōnin asked aloud as he felt the back of his head, brushing his fingertips across the severely shortened locks before sighing as he looked around cautiously- he'd have to cut his hair after the test was over so he didn't look stupid. _'I'm surprised he hasn't attacked again. What are you up to kid?'_

"What's wrong Naruto? Don't want to play anymore?" He asked loud enough to be heard at a good distance, casually moving about in the open while looking exposed and pretending not to notice the slight rustle of leaves in the tree behind him. "What a pity, I was actually starting to have fun."

_'He's stronger than me, faster than me and probably has much greater situational awareness than I do.'_ Naruto thought to himself from his hiding place. _'I can't match him physically even if I tried, and he's been a jōnin for longer than I've been alive so there's no way in hell I can match him in experience. And if I can't get a bell alone, there's no way Sasuke and Hanabi can.'_ "What the hell is your game Ichigan?" As he whispered that he heard a shrill scream of terror from near to where his clones had placed Hanabi, a few fast hand signs below the cover of the branches sent one of his clones off to investigate.

Hanabi bolted upright in an instant, her white eyes wide with panic as she looked around for something, it didn't take long for her to spot the blond crouched down beside her with his fingertips resting gently on her shoulders and black lines receded beneath the sleeves of his coat. He resisted her when she tried to get up and simply shook his head while looking her straight in the eyes. She swallowed slightly as she stared into his intense blue gaze feeling a similar sensation to the one she got when her father was scrutinizing her, though the blond's eyes didn't carry the same weight of judgment that his did. Why the hell did he face feel so warm?::

"Even now, such a pervert Hanabi-chan." Naruto chided her with an impish grin as he pulled his hand back and set it over his heart, his voice never raising above a whisper. "Oh, what is this world coming to, that even the young fall victim to such corruption."

"Wha- mmph!" He cut her off before she could shout at him by clapping a hand over her mouth.

"Keep your voice down, I don't want Kakashi to find us." He warned before pulling his hand back again. "Now, tell me what happened."

"K-Kakashi found me where I was hiding, I thought he was going to attack me but he didn't- he just disappeared in an overpowered leaf shushin." She said, thinking back. "I felt kind of tired and then... Hinata! I heard Hinata calling out to me, I looked back and... Oh god! She..."

"Hanabi, it wasn't real." He said, gently grasping her shoulder like it would keep her tethered to where they were. "It sounds like he caught you in a genjutsu. Hinata hasn't been anywhere near here as far as I can tell."

"B-but I'm a Hyuuga, I can't be..." She cut off when he snorted and glared at him.

"Don't be so arrogant kid, just because you're a Hyuuga doesn't mean you're immune to genjutsu." He chided. "Those pretty little eyes of yours may let you see chakra, but only when they're on, and even then, I doubt you can see everything."

"What do you know?" She scoffed.

"More than you apparently. There's no such thing as a perfect bloodline limit. Every single one of them has some sort of flaw." Naruto answered. "Your eyes for example. The Byakuugan has a three hundred and sixty degree field of vision, at least in theory, but there is evidence that suggests that it has a blind spot. Granted, this is all stuff I learned from Shishou, but I believe it. For instance, they way you walk, you shift your upper body around just slightly, so does Hinata, this suggests that you've both been trained to do this. That in and of itself isn't too unusual, most martial arts have some form of similar nuance to them, because the way you shift also helps to keep your upper body loose for fast strikes. Secondly, the Kaiten, you family's 'ultimate defense'. There's no need for an ultimate defense unless there's some form or ultimate weakness.

"And that's all just from a combat stand point." He said with a smile. "From a medical stand point, the Byakuugan can't have a truly full field of vision. I agree with Shishou's opinion that your family has a blind spot somewhere in the upper back, but I also believe that you can't see what's below your feet unless you look straight down."

"W-what makes you think that?" Hanabi asked, slightly thrown about the fact that her dojutsu had been so thoroughly picked apart."

"Well, your eyes would have to have a blind spot to compensate for the stress that kind of vision would put on your brain." He explained. "As far as blind spots go, one in your upper back- say the base of the neck- wouldn't bee too bad of a place to have a blind spot, all you'd have to do to cover it would be move your back around a bit to check it. Though, admittedly, this is all speculation, neither of us has studied a Hyuuga with their Byakuugan active. I disagree with him on one point though, like I said. I think that your family has a second blind spot. The fist is all well and good, it's take a bit of stress off of your brains and all, but it's not large enough to truly compensate. Hence, I believe that you and your family can't see under ground without truly meaning to. That's a significant enough blind spot that it would reduce the strain to somewhere around half of what it would be otherwise."

"Why the hell do you even think about this kind of thing?" She asked flatly.

"It's as important to know the weaknesses of your allies as it is to know those of your enemies." The blond stated. "You must assume that your enemy knows your every flaw, and those of your allies as well and nothing else. Foolish assumptions in battle will lead to defeat."

"You were making a lot of assumptions a second ago." She said, glaring at him.

"Logical ones." He nodded. "You were the one who foolishly assumed that because of your lineage, illusions would have no affect on you."

"Yeah well..." She scowled, unable to come up with an insult.

"Enough, we need to find Sasuke." Naruto proclaimed.

"Why?" Hanabi asked.

"Because we're missing something, and I haven't figure out what." He replied evenly. "Now, can you find him or not?"

"Hold on." She grumbled as the veins around her eyes bulged and she began to look around. "Found him. Fifty meters, south south west. He's buried up to his neck in the ground and Sensei is saying something to him."

"Alright, let's go- quietly." He warned.

Sasuke growled and muttered curses under his breath as he tried to free himself from the ground without success. He was angry. Hell, he was beyond angry. He was completely, totally and down right unbelievably pissed. That bastard Kakashi had not only buried him up to his ears in the dirt, he had the gall to dress him, the last loyal Uchiha, down like he was some random child! The raven haired boy continued to struggle against the dirt futilely, trying to get enough leeway to free an arm when a shadow passed in front of his face, causing him to look up.::

"Yo, Sasuke." Naruto said crouching down in front of him with Hanabi at his side. "We need to talk."

"Get me out of here." The Uchiha heir apparent ordered, watching as the blond seemed to ponder it- much to his irritation.

"Hmm, no." He said finally. "Like I said, we need to talk. And, well, this is probably the best chance we'll have."

"Either help me or go away." He growled, resuming his struggling until Hanabi stepped on his head. "Hey!"

"You know, I really like this idea Uzumaki." Hanabi said as she continued wiping her sandels on the boy's head as he growled at her.

"Na-ru-to-sen-pai." He corrected her firmly. "I'm older than both of you."

"U-zu-ma-ki." She snarked, emphasizing each syllable by grinder her foot on Sasuke a little more.

"Stop doing that you little bitch!" Sasuke snapped, getting slapped across the face by Naruto- whom he turned his glare on in an instant.

"Watch your mouth brat. You might think you're really something, but right now, you're just a piece of trash in my mind- and you will be until you prove otherwise." The blond growled, grasping Hanabi's leg and pulling it off the boy's head. "Now, both of you listen. Kakashi-sensei is pulling something over on us. But I don't know what it is. Those bells, don't mean jack, that I do know. We can't get them, not working alone. I'm arguably the most skilled of us here, and I still couldn't get one away from him."

"Skilled? You?" The other boy scoffed.

"Yeah, did you miss the whole Kakashi versus my clones thing or something? I'm the only one of us with practical experience as a ninja." He said honestly. "This guy, he's on a whole other level. I can't beat him."

"He didn't seem that good to me." Sasuke comment, feeling something wrap around his body. "What?"

"You feel something?" Naruto asked.

"Someone is holding me." The other boy said with a deal of distaste in his voice.

"That would be your ride." He said, moving behind the buried teen and shoving his hand into the ground. "Allie-oop!" He declared before pulling up sharply, pulling both Sasuke and another copy of himself out of the ground that disappeared as soon as Sasuke was on solid ground. "Now then, as I was saying. I've been holding back this whole time. Sensei has been holding back even more than me. If he really get's serious, there's no way we could touch those bells, even if we all worked together."

"Your quiet right Naruto." Kakashi said, popping out of the ground and seizing the blond from behind. "You're definitely above your teammates in terms of skill, but you made a mistake."

"What's that?" He asked, struggling vainly against the stronger man.

"You wiped all the scent from your body, but you're still carrying cigarettes." The jōnin explained, causing the boy to stop struggling.

"Oh. Hell." He sighed before going up in smoke.

"Shadow clone." The masked man chuckled as he looked at his other students. "Those can get annoying, very quickly. Don't you agree?"

Naruto was in a crouch the instant his clone's warning reached him, his body tensed when he heard someone clear their throat from behind him, slightly off to one side.::

"Cute hiding spot, very well thought out." Kakashi remarked, his eye curving happily as soon as the blond looked back at him. "Hello!"

"Goodbye!" Retorted the blond as the branch he was on was severed by an invisible blade that cut half-way through the tree, dropping him down far enough down that he could escape.

"A wind user, how fun!" The jōnin said with a wide smile before taking off after his escaping student at what was a leisurely pace for him. "Oh Na~ru~To!" He singsonged as he started to catch up to the genin. "Is that all you've got?"

"Not even close!" He shouted back, unsealing his sword from inside his coat and using it in combination with chakra to sever the branches to slow down the copy nin.

"Clever, and a good idea against less skilled enemies." The older fighter observed, easily jumping the gaps left behind. "But useless against a jōnin Naruto-kun! You'll need to work harder!" He declared, watching the boy drop down lower into the tree before he heard a loud groan and found himself dodging a falling tree trunk. "Did you just try to drop a tree on me?"

"Sorry! I missed you!" The blond shouted over his shoulder as black lines spread across his entire face and out across his hands. "Don't worry though, my aim is getting better!" With the last declaration he drew back his glowing blade with both hands and slashed forward, cleaving straight through a particularly thick before stepping on the falling trunk and overloading it with a powerful surge of chakra. "How's that?" He called back as soon as 'Kakashi' turned into a sliver filled log.

"Much better!" Kakashi announced, attacking him from the side- dodging a sword slash by switching out with another log. "You really are good Naruto!"

"Timber!" The medic shouted as he dropped down lower into the forest, cutting down another tree and using it as a bridge to escape into the clearing.

"You shouldn't declare your intentions like that." He scolded his student, watching him unseal a harness and scabbard obviously meant for his sword that he donned quickly.

"I'll remember that." Naruto stated as he sheathed his blade and spun quickly, taking a deep breath as his hands flashed through a short seal set.

"What the hell is he doing?" Sasuke asked after hearing a loud crash coming from the forest.

"Attempting to escape me would by my guess." Kakashi said calmly.

The three of them heard Naruto's shout of 'timber' before a tree began to topple toward the ground, slowly at first but gaining speed as two figures ran out across the trunk like it was flat ground- the smaller figure leaping off and spewing forth a deep purple cloud that the second. The smaller person, Naruto obviously, continued to keep his eyes locked on the taller, Kakashi, as he ran backwards nearly as quickly as he had been running forward, spitting half a dozen small (fairly large actually) sized fireballs to keep the man at a distance as he backpedaled toward his teammates. The second Kakashi, disappeared in a flicker of motion and reappeared the blond in the middle of a kick, laughing aloud when he ducked down and used his momentum to carry him past the man, showing off slightly as he back flipped the remaining distance to Sasuke and Hanabi after he began to slow down. His chest heaving slightly from effort as he came to a stop.::

"I can't believe you tried to drop two trees on me." The nearest Kakashi chided him as the second simply disappeared.

"You told me to do better."He panted as he shrugged slight "I guess I should introduce myself properly though."

"Oh?" The jōnin asked with a bare hint of a smile visible despite his mask.

"Uzumaki Naruto. Medical specialist." Naruto said, drawing himself upright as his breathing evened out. "Hanabi, Sasuke. I've figured it out. Will you work with me?"

"How do we know you're the real you, and not just another one of your damn clones?" Hanabi asked, watching him reach into his weapon pouch to pull out a blue topped cigarette pack long enough to grab one and put it to his lips. "We're in the middle of a test! Why the hell are you smoking?"

"I'm going to start getting really really ticky soon if I don't." He answered, lighting it and taking a short drag. "Now, answer the question, will you work with me?"

"Can we win?" She asked after a short moment of thought.

"Probably. What about you Sasuke?" He asked calmly as the cigarette slowly burned in his lips.

"Fine." The boy said after Hanabi nudged him.

"On my signal, follow my lead." Naruto ordered, exhaling a toxic cloud of gas as the cancer stick neared the halfway mark- suddenly flicking it toward the jōnin before grabbing his teammates as he propelled all three of them back with a chakra enhanced jump. Sasuke nearly protested, before the explosive tag in the discarded cigarette lived up to it's name.

Kakashi was slightly dazed as he rolled to his feet, his ears were ringing from being so close to the explosion. He was only thinking one thing as several dozen copies of his fair-haired student surrounded him. Who the hell smokes a freaking bomb? Dazed as he was, it wasn't hard for the battle tested jōnin to defeat the handful of clones that attacked him as a ground, he'd been close to detonating explosive notes before, he'd been attacked by superior numbers before. Hell, he'd done both at once on several occasions, and those enemies didn't pop like party balloons after one good hit. In seconds, all the Naruto's save one were gone, and that remaining one was charging at him head on. Well, that's a stupid idea.::

The one became many with a single seal, and every single clone he had defeated was replaced and had extras. Crap. Why did he have to fight the Jinchuuriki again? Oh well, for all his power, the kid was still a kid. He had little real battle experience, at least not when compared to the sharingan user he was fighting. He sighed, to himself. The battlefield was no place for children and that's all they ever sent him, stupid bastards on the council. As he smashed through the clones, he noticed something. They were switching places with each other and replenishing their numbers every time he destroyed on of them. That would definitely get annoying quickly. One of the Naruto's shouted something he couldn't quite make out over the ringing. Damn explosion. Oh look, Sasuke and Hanabi just joined Naruto's little fist orgy, and a kick to the face of that stuck up brat Sasuke. Damn. Another Naruto clone. Still felt good though.::

The jōnin heard the soft jingle of his bells and the din of the orange hoard grow louder, his hearing was starting to return. He sidestepped Hanabi before grabbing her leg and smash her into a couple Naruto's, her becoming another him before he hit the first, but hey, at least he was winning. A sharp sensation like a bee sting drew his attention to his leg and the Hyuuga heiress that had just jabbed him, he caught her in the jaw with the opposite knee- he leg still hurt though. What genius thought up Jyuuken anyway? That crap hurts when it hits you. Granted, that is the point but... Oh look she didn't turn into another clone. His punch connected with Sasuke's stomach, and he too turned out to be the real deal. Well, two high-society brats down. Finally. Now if he could just find that damn blond brat. Two clones broke off the attack and grabbed Hanabi and Sasuke, pulling them both out of the field of fire. Fire. That sounded like fun. Kakashi's hands were blur as he performed the seals and took a deep breath. Flames erupted into the hoard of genin, consuming them and reducing them to literally nothing as he rotated. Oh, sweet satisfaction. And not a blond hair in sight. Where the hell did he go now?::

"Yo, sensei." Came the familiar voice of Naruto who was standing over his teammates, smoking a cigarette and holding a pair of bells while his clones tended to the two. "Got 'em."

"You switched them out with your collar?" Kakashi asked as he looked down at the belled band on his hip. "Nice touch. Now comes the important part. Who gets them?"

"These little trinkets?" The blond asked in a carefree manner, moving his arm down to his side for a second before throwing the bells up into the air and incinerating them with a decent sized jet of flame, his lightly singed lips twisting into a small smirk as the jutsu ended. "I guess no one now."

"What the hell?" Hanabi demanded. "We needed those to pass!"

"I told you. This test isn't about the bells." He stated, pulling out a fresh cigarette and lighting it. "It never was, haven't you figured it out yet? We have enough information."

"What are you talking about?" Sasuke asked, pushing away the arm of the Naruto double before rubbing his aching stomach.

"We had to work together." The kunoichi said, finally grasping the answer. "The bells were to separate us so that we wouldn't."

"Very good, Hanabi-chan." Naruto said with a face of bliss as he took a deep drag of his cigarette. "The point of all this was to see if would could pull together and work as a team."

"Did we?" Sasuke asked.

"Hell no." The blond snorted, reaching into his sleave and tossing the other two one of the bells. "I'm a medic, I run a clinic by myself. I know next to nothing about working as a team. I can give orders and I can follow them. But that's about it for me." He sighed before finishing off the fag and extinguishing it on his palm, letting the black lines covering his hands and face retreat back underneath his clothes. "I just gave you two some vague orders and you put it together from there. But hey, that's better than nothing, right?"

"Better than nothing." Kakashi agreed, nodding slightly. "But not being a real team could very easily get all of you killed."

"Listen, as much as I'm enjoying this conversation, I've got some urgent business to take care of- cannot wait sort of shit." Naruto said as he took out and lit another cigarette. "I hate to be rude, and I hate to rush you. But I have to ask you right now. Do we pass, or fail?"

"You managed to work together, if just barely. On top of that you actually managed to get the bells from me- if only by overwhelming me." The jōnin said, watching the boy carefully as he spoke. "Against my better judgment. You pass. Barely."

"Good to know." He nodded, moving away from the others. "I'll have to take a rain check on whatever team thing you had planned, sensei." He said before pressing his hands together in a ram seal and running off far faster than he had during the test.

"We'll meet back here tomorrow at six a.m." Kakashi said as the alarm sounded. "Don't be late." With that, he disappeared with a puff of smoke.

"I wonder what that was about." Hanabi said, looking over to find Sasuke already walking away. "Boys."

"Come on, stop shaking damn it." Naruto muttered at his trembling hand as he worked to prepare a syringe for clear fluid, grasping his wrist with his other hand in an attempt to steady it until a second pair of gloved hands moved in and prepared the needle for him- he looked up into the face of his teacher when the man paused. "Sensei?"

"How much?" Kakashi asked.

"All of it." He said, closing his purple tinted eyes as he took a deep breath.

"Is this going to be a problem?" The older man asked as the liquid drained into the syringe from the small vial.

"No more than usual." The blond said, exposing his neck fully, hissing slightly when the needle entered his jugular and released it's contents into his blood. "Thought I had a couple more minutes. I would have gone for one of the prepared shots if I thought it would hit this quickly."

"Are you going to be a danger to them Naruto?" He asked.

"No more than usual." He repeated.

A/N 2: Yeah, that's it for now. Chapter four won't be out for a while. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. I'll look over it more thoroughly in the morning, but if you find any errors, let me know please. Even if you don't find errors, leave a review- be it good, bad or drool monkey infestation of the cranial persuasion. I like reviews. Even the flames. Flames are how an author knows they're doing well. You're not on the right path unless there's a vocal minority bitching at you. (you may want to take a look around if the majority starts complaining though).

Later.

24CC


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